Lyric Poem · For Kids
Picture-Books in Winter
1Summer fading, winter comes —
2Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
3Window robins, winter rooks,
4And the picture story-books.
5Water now is turned to stone
6Nurse and I can walk upon;
7Still we find the flowing brooks
8In the picture story-books.
9All the pretty things put by,
10Wait upon the children's eye,
11Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
12In the picture story-books.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Picture-Books in Winter” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/picture-books-in-winter
Quick facts
- Poem
- Picture-Books in Winter
- Poet
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- For Kids, Nature, Winter, Summer
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
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 7-syllable lines.
- Refrain
- “In the picture story-books.”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
- PoetryDBPicture-Books in Winter 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 df442300d0376679…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.