diff --git a/hy/lex/parser.py b/hy/lex/parser.py
index c4df2a5..27180c5 100755
--- a/hy/lex/parser.py
+++ b/hy/lex/parser.py
@@ -31,8 +31,11 @@ def set_boundaries(fun):
             ret.end_line = end.lineno
             ret.end_column = end.colno
         else:
-            ret.end_line = start.lineno
-            ret.end_column = start.colno + len(p[0].value)
+            v = p[0].value
+            ret.end_line = start.lineno + v.count('\n')
+            ret.end_column = (len(v) - v.rindex('\n') - 1
+                if '\n' in v
+                else start.colno + len(v) - 1)
         return ret
     return wrapped
 
diff --git a/hy/models.py b/hy/models.py
index 478c691..ef51a26 100644
--- a/hy/models.py
+++ b/hy/models.py
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@ class HyObject(object):
     """
     Generic Hy Object model. This is helpful to inject things into all the
     Hy lexing Objects at once.
+
+    The position properties (`start_line`, `end_line`, `start_column`,
+    `end_column`) are each 1-based and inclusive. For example, a symbol
+    `abc` starting at the first column would have `start_column` 1 and
+    `end_column` 3.
     """
     __properties__ = ["module", "start_line", "end_line", "start_column",
                       "end_column"]
diff --git a/tests/test_lex.py b/tests/test_lex.py
index 99658c6..304f69a 100644
--- a/tests/test_lex.py
+++ b/tests/test_lex.py
@@ -247,6 +247,12 @@ def test_lex_column_counting():
     assert entry.end_line == 1
     assert entry.end_column == 15
 
+    symbol = entry[0]
+    assert symbol.start_line == 1
+    assert symbol.start_column == 2
+    assert symbol.end_line == 1
+    assert symbol.end_column == 4
+
     inner_expr = entry[1]
     assert inner_expr.start_line == 1
     assert inner_expr.start_column == 6
@@ -254,6 +260,20 @@ def test_lex_column_counting():
     assert inner_expr.end_column == 14
 
 
+def test_lex_column_counting_with_literal_newline():
+    string, symbol = tokenize('"apple\nblueberry" abc')
+
+    assert string.start_line == 1
+    assert string.start_column == 1
+    assert string.end_line == 2
+    assert string.end_column == 10
+
+    assert symbol.start_line == 2
+    assert symbol.start_column == 12
+    assert symbol.end_line == 2
+    assert symbol.end_column == 14
+
+
 def test_lex_line_counting_multi():
     """ Make sure we can do multi-line tokenization """
     entries = tokenize("""