30+ Warming Winter Poems

Inside: 30+ Warming Winter Poems and Sayings to Welcome the Holiday Season.

The winter season brings many images to your mind. While it has its dark skies and cold winds, it also brings with it the warm and welcoming holiday season. All of the sights and sounds that come with the coldest time of year have inspired poets for ages. Winter poems explore the cold and warm, the welcoming and blustering, the festive and ferocious. Some are inspired by nature, and others by the holidays that bring us all together.

The versatility of this blustery season as a theme makes it perfect for so many different poetic forms. Here, we have listed some of our favorite winter poems that come in haikus, sonnets, free verse, and even acrostic forms.

As you bundle up and spend long, dark nights inside, take a moment to read our list of just a few winter poems that will make you feel warm and ready to welcome the holidays.

Classic Poems About Snow and Winter

Winter poems have been around almost as long as humans have been writing poetry. Perhaps it is something about being stowed away inside while the snow falls just outside your window. Regardless, there are a great number of classic poets who have tackled the theme of this contradicting season in their poetry. Here is just a small taste of some famous classic winter poems.

1. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost is a master of poetry, and much of his subject matter relates to nature. His famous piece “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” will get you started on your journey through winter poems, and leave you with “miles to go before you sleep.”
2. How like a winter hath my absence been – Shakespeare’s Sonnet 97 relates the loss of his love as a bare December, and reminisces fuller and more lively seasons.
3. The Snow Man – “The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens was published in 1921. This classic poem is absolutely breathtaking in its imagery. Get lost in this journey through this snowy season.
4. Lines: The cold earth slept below – This poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famed “Ozymandias” poet, paints a picture of this cold season with sparks of light in its woodland creatures and starry nights.
5. Winter-Time – This poem by Robert Louis Stevenson was written in the late 1800s. It beautifully describes a cold, snowy night juxtaposed with the warm and comforting hearth and home.
6. Spellbound – Emily Bronte is another poet from the 19th century. Her poem “Spellbound”  describes how a cold wind and dark, snowy night can keep one frozen to the spot. This poem can make you feel cold even if you are warm indoors!
7. Blow, blow, thou winter wind – Another poem by Shakespeare, this classic poem compares this cold and unforgiving season to unfair human behaviors.
8. Winter is good – his Hoar Delights – This poem was written by Emily Dickinson in 1316. If you’d like to read a classic winter poem from centuries ago, this abstract poem is an excellent choice.
9. The Snow Storm – Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The Snow Storm” is a gorgeous and somewhat haunting poem that describes a blustering storm, the speaker warmly protected from the storm indoors.
10. Woods in Winter – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is another famous poet from the 19th century. This poem is set in a barren snowy landscape, the speaker treading on an abandoned path his own.

Winter Haikus

The haiku is the perfect poetic form to appreciate and observe nature. Combined with a wintry theme, you’re bound to get some absolutely beautiful winter poems. Here is just a small collection of some wonderful haikus that will make you long for a cold, snowy evening of your own.

11. Winter’s Glow – “with sun as its spire / the peak is a cathedral . . . / winter’s glow is ours” —Andrea Dietrich
12. Winter – “thick blanket of snow / snuggling the flowerbeds / with a winter wrap” —Jan Allison
13. Winter Stars in Winter Skies – “always loved winter stars / in winter skies in clear sky / Southern Alps mountains”  —Terence George Craddock
14. Snow – “softly falling hush – / a snowy blanket comforts / hibernating land” —Susan Ashley
15. Mist – “Winter spirits rise / Release from snow they danced, warmed / Weeping tears of mist” —Kristin Reynolds
16. Winter Magic Night – “pine tree icicles / glister in chilly midnight / announcing Christmas” —Nayda Ivette Negron Flores
17. Snug and Warm – “biting icy winds / thermal clothes protecting me / from the winter chill” —Jan Allison

Playful and Festive Winter Poems

With the coldest time of year comes the holiday season, warm and welcoming compared to some harsher seasonal themes. Here are a few of our favorite fun and festive winter poems!

18. Winter Acrostic Poem – “Winter is cold but wonderful, / Icy but peaceful. / Noses are always dripping and red, / The days are short as the nights have to come yet. / Every year this season brings a lot of fun and frolic, / Readily we always wait for it to come back again!”
19. Snow – This poem by Gillian Clarke celebrates the holiday season and its association with Christmas. It perfectly captures the hush of Christmas Eve and the magic of the holiday season.
20. The Bells  – Edgar Allen Poe is generally known for his darker poetry. However, “The Bells I” is a bright and festive poem that brings the sounds of bells to mind. It is the first entry in a collection of several verses about bells.
21. London Snow – This poem written by Robert Bridges shares that magic that results from a snowy night that covers the streets and muffles all noise.
22. Winter Winter – “Winter Winter” by Samuel Earle describes that inner battle that many of us face when it comes to this season. We love the snow, but hate its cold, and miss it as soon as spring comes!

More Winter Poems to Warm Your Heart

The year’s final season is cold, but it has its way of making us feel warm, comfortable, and safe. Take a look at some more beautiful winter poems that tell stories of cold, snowy days.

23. White Eyes – “White Eyes” by Mary Oliver is a gorgeous poem that fixates on a “wind-bird” on a cold night when everyone else is warm in bed.
24. Dust of Snow – This is another poem written by Robert Frost. The main character in “Dust of Snow” is also a bird, this time a crow, on a snowy day.
25. February – Margaret Atwood’s “February” explores the coldest and shortest month of the year. The speaker empathizes with living creatures that struggle to survive in nature’s harsh and cold conditions.
26. Winter-Time – This poem by Robert Louis Stevenson was written in the late 1800s. It beautifully describes a cold night juxtaposed with the warm and comforting hearth and home.
27. At the Solstice – “At the Solstice” by Shaun O’Brien explores the cold season and how it makes us feel, going from season to season and observing the snowfall.

Quotes About Winter

28. “Winter is coming.” —George R. R. Martin
29. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” —John Steinbeck
30. “Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.” —Virginia Woolf
31. “October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.” —J.K. Rowling
32. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” —Percy Bysshe Shelley