Poems about Snow and the Winter Season

Few things are as strikingly beautiful as the first snow of the season. Winter brings with it a quiet introspection, cozy nostalgia, and the spaciousness to slow down, recharge, and transform. It’s no wonder that poets have explored the stark imagery of snow and cold for centuries; like an acorn encased in ice, winter carries its own quiet creative potential. In this blog, we’ll share a selection of snow-inspired poems to help you enjoy the winter weather in the coming months.

 

“First Snow” by Aria Aber

How easy for snow to turn to ice, for snow

   to disappear the light from the ragged

 

frame of chestnut trees around the warehouse

      by what’s left of wild chicory, scraped

 

sculptures, weeping dogbane. Hunger borders

      this land, while snow turns all to immigrants,

 

snow salts the embankment, where turtles wash ashore,

      literally hundreds of them, frozen hard

 

like grenades of tear gas thrown across

      a barbwire fence. But who of their free

 

will would ever want to climb that fence

      to live here, who would pray each night

 

for grace, hoping to pass through the darkened veil

      of shit, to bear witness to smokestacks,

 

wild champion, knapweed? Who’d loiter around cricks

      glistening with oil, which, once gone,

 

will, like death, at last, democratize

      us all? On potato sacks in the snowcapped,

 

abandoned warehouse, there huddle and sit

      the soiled refugees, bereft, cow-eyed,

 

picking dirt off their scalps, their shelled soles.

      Among them, wordless, is my mother,

 

and nestled on her lap is I, in love with the light

      of the first snow of my life, so awed

 

and doubtful still of what lengths the frost wills

      to go, and what shape it will then take—

 

Originally published in the Yale Review, “First Snow” by Aria Aber explores snow as a transformative and complex force, beautiful to look at but also cruelly indifferent to the world’s suffering. The poem explores the fragility of life and identity as a refugee, contrasting the childlike awe the speaker feels at the sight of snow with the bleak realities of environmental, political, and personal hardship. 

 

“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens

“One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

 

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

 

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

 

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

 

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”

 

“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens explores the idea of seeing the natural world as it truly is, without projecting subjective human narratives and emotions onto it, a theme reminiscent of Robert Frost’s classic poem, “The Need of Being Versed in Country Things.” Although humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize nature, this meditative poem invites us to adopt a clear “mind of winter” in order to perceive the world (and our place in it) more objectively. 

 

“A Winter Blue Jay” by Sara Teasdale

Crisply the bright snow whispered,

Crunching beneath our feet;

Behind us as we walked along the parkway,

Our shadows danced,

Fantastic shapes in vivid blue.

Across the lake the skaters

Flew to and fro,

With sharp turns weaving

A frail invisible net.

In ecstasy the earth

Drank the silver sunlight;

In ecstasy the skaters

Drank the wine of speed;

In ecstasy we laughed

Drinking the wine of love.

Had not the music of our joy

Sounded its highest note?

But no,

For suddenly, with lifted eyes you said,

“Oh look!”

There, on the black bough of a snow flecked maple,

Fearless and gay as our love,

A bluejay cocked his crest!

Oh who can tell the range of joy

Or set the bounds of beauty?

Sara Teasdale’s “A Winter Blue Jay” is a joyful, lyrical poem that celebrates an unexpected moment of awe—seeing a bluejay on a snowy branch while on a winter walk. The poem captures a specific moment of joy, rich with the sensory images of taking a stroll on a snowy day colored by the exhilaration of romantic love. This poem invites us to reflect on the ways joy can deepen, with simple, natural wonders amplifying our experience. 

 

“Prayer for Snow” by Ann DeVilbiss

Coat this ugly world in tumbled ice cream

so I can glut my eyes on something pretty,

tromp endless, forgetting the existence of toes.

Give it loud sunlight, if it has to leave,

sent off in a parade of blue heat

to merry grace every storm sewer with

trilled tongues bright as new pennies,

waterfall of coins rushing underground.

I swear if I can just have this one day

of perfect scenery, I’ll stop complaining

for at least two, stop reminding you of

stacking bodies, evil lofted on a flag pole,

charging down what’s good to leave it

trampled, fleeting as snow flees

when the sun pretends to bring us light.

 

“Prayer for Snow” by Ann DeVilbiss contrasts the desire to see snow’s blanketing beauty and the despair of knowing that with the cold weather comes an increase in danger for vulnerable populations who need to stay warm to survive. DeVilbiss uses snow as a symbol of fleeting grace—a brief moment of wonder that offers solace in the form of aesthetic beauty but cannot solve (and sometimes even exacerbates) the world’s suffering. 

 

Enjoy your winter reading

We hope these poems get you in the headspace to enjoy a cozy, joyful winter, whether you plan on spending it inside with a warm cup of tea or out adventuring in the snow. If you’re inspired to write some of your own winter poems, try these 4 winter poetry prompts or these winter writing exercises.