Lyric Poem · For Kids
Winter-Time
1Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
2A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
3Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
4A blood-red orange, sets again.
5Before the stars have left the skies,
6At morning in the dark I rise;
7And shivering in my nakedness,
8By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
9Close by the jolly fire I sit
10To warm my frozen bones a bit;
11Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
12The colder countries round the door.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/winter-time
Quick facts
- Poem
- Winter-Time
- Poet
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- For Kids, Nature, Winter
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 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
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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
- PoetryDBWinter-Time 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 f07116b5cc5d8c96…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.