Winter Poems speak of the season in picturesque verse, touching on mood and senses. Personification, similes, and metaphors are often found in winter poems when describing winter’s symbols of cold, wind, and white snow.

Winter Poems

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind

by William Shakespeare
1564-1616

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
They tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the gree holly;
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly;
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly!

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot;
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly;
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly;
Then heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly!

Winter

by Christina Rossetti
1830-1894

Bread and milk for breakfast,
And woolen frocks to wear,
And a crumb for robin redbreast
On the cold days of the year.

Velvet Shoes

by Elinor Wylie
1885-1928

Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as a white cow’s milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evenning

by Robert Frost
1874-1963

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.