Theme · 107 poems
Winter Poems
Snowy woods, low light, and the season's strange hush — poems to read when the year goes quiet, from carols to the bleakest lyrics in English.
Winter gets English poetry's best silences. Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' is the most perfect: four quatrains, a horse, "the darkest evening of the year", and a repeated last line that turns a pause in the snow into something much harder to name. Dickinson's 'There's a certain Slant of light' does the same work with the season's light instead of its weather, finding an "imperial affliction" in a winter afternoon.
The season has a warm register too. Christina Rossetti's 'In the Bleak Midwinter' became a carol because it holds cold and comfort in the same stanza — frosty wind, hard iron earth, and then a stable. Her 'Winter: My Secret' is the playful end of the spectrum. Choose by temperature: Frost and Dickinson for the year's quiet and the harder feelings, Rossetti for anything sung, read at a table, or given to a child.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost · 1923
16 lines · lyric
The Darkling Thrush
Thomas Hardy · 1900
32 lines · lyric
In the Bleak Midwinter
Christina Rossetti · 1872
40 lines · lyric
A Visit from St. Nicholas
Clement Clarke Moore · 1823
56 lines · narrative
Winter under cultivation
Emily Dickinson
2 lines · lyric
Snow on the Mailbox
The QuillOak Editors
3 lines · haiku
Peace is a fiction of our Faith
Emily Dickinson
4 lines · lyric
Winter (a Cinquain)
The QuillOak Editors
5 lines · cinquain
Water, is taught by thirst
Emily Dickinson
6 lines · lyric
Stanza
Percy Bysshe Shelley
6 lines · lyric
To Friends At Home
Robert Louis Stevenson
6 lines · lyric
Snow Day
The QuillOak Editors
8 lines · lyric
The Santa Stakeout
The QuillOak Editors
8 lines · lyric
One Window's Glow
The QuillOak Editors
8 lines · lyric
A little Snow was here and there
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Absent Place—an April Day
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
In snow thou comest
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Snow beneath whose chilly softness
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
'Twas here my summer paused
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
'Twas later when the summer went
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Twice had Summer her fair Verdure
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
Winter is good—his Hoar Delights
Emily Dickinson
8 lines · lyric
The Winter it is Past
Robert Burns
8 lines · lyric
Ah Sunflower
William Blake
8 lines · lyric
Dust of Snow
Robert Frost · 1923
8 lines · lyric
Snow flakes
Emily Dickinson
9 lines · lyric
Is it Well with the Child?
Christina Rossetti
10 lines · lyric
A Lament
Percy Bysshe Shelley
10 lines · lyric
The Night is Darkening Around Me
Emily Brontë
12 lines · lyric
Dying! Dying in the night!
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
I know a place where Summer strives
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
If pain for peace prepares
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
Some, too fragile for winter winds
Emily Dickinson
12 lines · lyric
To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems
Oscar Wilde
12 lines · lyric
To Constantia
Percy Bysshe Shelley
12 lines · lyric
Bed in Summer
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
I WHo All The Winter Through
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
The Summer Sun Shone Round Me
Robert Louis Stevenson
12 lines · lyric
The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake
12 lines · lyric
Lines to a Reviewer
Percy Bysshe Shelley
13 lines · lyric
Farewell to the Highlands
Robert Burns
13 lines · lyric
Sonnet 44 - Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
14 lines · lyric
To the Nile
Percy Bysshe Shelley
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet on the Author’s Birthday
Robert Burns
14 lines · lyric
Farewell to the Court
Sir Walter Raleigh
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet 13: O! that you were your self; but, love you are
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 5: Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 56: Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring
William Shakespeare
14 lines · sonnet
Variation of the Song of the Moon
Percy Bysshe Shelley
15 lines · lyric
To a Gentlewoman, Objecting to Him Hisgray Hairs
Robert Herrick
15 lines · lyric
Sympathy
Emily Brontë
16 lines · lyric
Besides the Autumn poets sing
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
He told a homely tale
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
The Snow that never drifts
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
The Winters are so short
Emily Dickinson
16 lines · lyric
Lines to a Critic
Percy Bysshe Shelley
16 lines · lyric
Farewell to Ballochmyle
Robert Burns
16 lines · lyric
More poems in this theme
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s BirthdayOLD Winter, with his frosty beard,…16 lines
- The Winter of LifeBUT lately seen in gladsome green,…16 lines
- Holy ThursdayIs this a holy thing to see…16 lines
- There's a certain Slant of lightThere's a certain slant of light,…16 lines
- Summer and WinterIt was a bright and cheerful afternoon,…18 lines
- If I could bribe them by a RoseIf I could bribe them by a Rose…19 lines
- The Henpecked HusbandChorus.—Robin shure in hairst,…19 lines
- In Memoriam 78: Again at Christmas did we weaveAgain at Christmas did we weave…20 lines
- I cannot dance upon my ToesI cannot dance upon my Toes —…20 lines
- Foreign ChildrenLittle Indian, Sioux, or Crow,…20 lines
- Picture-Books in WinterSummer fading, winter comes —…20 lines
- Winter-TimeLate lies the wintry sun a-bed,…20 lines
- The Frost of Death was on the PaneThe Frost of Death was on the Pane —…21 lines
- LibertyThe fiery mountains answer each other;…21 lines
- From Spring Days To Winter (For Music)In the glad springtime when leaves were green,…22 lines
- Homer's Hymn to Castor and PolluxYe wild-eyed Muses, sing the Twins of Jove,…22 lines
- Farewell Frost, or Welcome SpringFled are the frosts, and now the fields appear…22 lines
- Before The Paling Of The StarsBefore the winter morn,…23 lines
- The feet of people walking homeThe feet of people walking home…24 lines
- When I hoped, I recollectWhen I hoped, I recollect…24 lines
- Afternoon in FebruaryThe day is ending,…24 lines
- In Drear-Nighted DecemberIn drear-nighted December,…24 lines
- StanzasIN a drear-nighted December,…24 lines
- The DirgeOld winter was gone…24 lines
- Winter: A DirgeTHE WINTRY west extends his blast,…24 lines
- Spring QuietGone were but the Winter,…25 lines
- To a Locomotive in WinterTHEE for my recitative!…26 lines
- A Letter to Her HusbandAbsent upon Public Employment…27 lines
- Her Sweet turn to leave the HomesteadHer Sweet turn to leave the Homestead…28 lines
- Woods in WinterWhen winter winds are piercing chill,…28 lines
- To IrelandBear witness, Erin! when thine injured isle…28 lines
- The SchoolboyI love to rise on a summer morn,…30 lines
- How still, how happy!How still, how happy! Those are words…32 lines
- There is a flower that Bees preferThere is a flower that Bees prefer —…32 lines
- The Charms of Lovely DaviesO HOW shall I, unskilfu’, try…32 lines
- Winter: My SecretI tell my secret? No indeed, not I:…34 lines
- Christmas Bells"I heard the bells on Christmas Day…35 lines
- ChildrenCome to me, O ye children!…36 lines
- In Winter in my RoomIn Winter in my Room…39 lines
- A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-HallChorus.…44 lines
- Bonie Jean: A BalladTHERE was a lass, and she was fair,…48 lines
- DreamlandBy a route obscure and lonely,…56 lines
- Up at a Villa—Down in the City_(As distinguished by an Italian person of quality.)_…67 lines
- Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope HouseGUDEWIFE,I MIND it weel in early date,…70 lines
- There was a Child went ForthTHERE was a child went forth every day;…73 lines
- The Country LifeTO THE HONOURED MR ENDYMION PORTER, GROOM OF…78 lines
- A Winter NightWHEN biting Boreas, fell and dour,…96 lines