Lyric Poem · Love

I WHo All The Winter Through

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I WHO all the winter through

Cherished other loves than you,

And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew;

Now I know the false and true,

For the earnest sun looks through,

And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.

Now the hedged meads renew

Rustic odour, smiling hue,

And the clean air shines and tinkles as the world goes wheeling through;

And my heart springs up anew,

Bright and confident and true,

And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.

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“I WHo All The Winter Through” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/i-who-all-the-winter-through

Quick facts

Poem: I WHo All The Winter Through
Poet: Robert Louis Stevenson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Winter, Nature

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 2 sestets
Refrain: “And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
Source record: PoetryDBI WHo All The Winter Through by robert-louis-stevenson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 29bceba3d7d62fe2…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Winter Nature

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