Some snow quotes make you want to step outside. Others make a warm window seat seem like the best place in the world. These sixteen short excerpts, from eight writers, offer both moods: playful winter suns, blue shadows, gentle snowfall and the surprise of a small change in an ordinary day.
Each quotation is linked to its text, with a short reading note. Line breaks are shown where useful; the notes are our own, and the excerpts are not presented as complete poems.
1. A gentle question
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?
— Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
Alice imagines snowfall as an affectionate gesture. Read it beside a tree whose branches have collected a fresh, soft layer.
2. The sound at the window
Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty?
— Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
The question makes you pause and listen. Winter writing can begin with a small sound instead of a sweeping landscape.
3. Snow as a sifted powder
It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
— Emily Dickinson, It sifts from Leaden Sieves
Dickinson borrows a familiar kitchen action to describe the weather. The ordinary comparison makes the whole woodland feel close at hand.
4. A road softened by white
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –
— Emily Dickinson, It sifts from Leaden Sieves
The road becomes fabric, and its unevenness becomes something that can be tucked in. It is a lovely image for a quiet lane.
5. Winter as a builder
Come see the north wind’s masonry.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Snow-Storm
Emerson invites us to look at snowdrifts as construction. The line suits a fence, doorway or branch reshaped by windblown snow.
6. An overnight work of art
The frolic architecture of the snow.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Snow-Storm
“Frolic” makes the building work playful. A weather-made shape can have structure without looking carefully planned.
7. A slow arrival
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Snow-Flakes
Read the line aloud and let the repeated sounds slow you down. Its pace is part of the picture.
8. A poem in the air
This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Snow-Flakes
Longfellow treats each falling movement as a little unit of language. The full poem has a more sorrowful mood than this short excerpt alone suggests.
9. Snow reaching the house
The white drift piled the window-frame,
— John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound
One domestic detail conveys how deeply the storm has changed the outside world. There is no measurement, yet the scale is clear.
10. Light that reveals cold
To make the coldness visible.
— John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound
In context, this describes moonlight on the snowy landscape. It is a useful companion to a photograph full of pale light and dark shadows.
11. A sleepy winter sun
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time
The sun becomes a reluctant early riser. It is a playful way to recognise the season’s short days.
12. The landscape as a cake
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.
— Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time
The comparison is sweet and immediate. It belongs with the decorated-looking edges of roofs, hedges and branches.
13. Snow underfoot
Crisply the bright snow whispered,
Crunching beneath our feet;
— Sara Teasdale, A Winter Blue Jay
Whispering and crunching share the same moment. Teasdale makes the walk feel lively before introducing the bird.
14. Blue shadows
Our shadows danced,
Fantastic shapes in vivid blue.
— Sara Teasdale, A Winter Blue Jay
A white landscape holds more colour than it first seems. This excerpt is a fine excuse to look at the shaded snow in your own photographs.
15. A small interruption
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
— Robert Frost, Dust of Snow
A little fall of snow becomes the centre of a short poem. The event is modest, which is part of its appeal.
16. A changed moment
Has given my heart
A change of mood
— Robert Frost, Dust of Snow
The continuation supplies the emotional turn. Read the complete poem to see how the small interruption changes the speaker’s day.
Choose the words that fit the moment
A short excerpt can change mood when it is separated from its poem. Follow the source link before using it, keep the wording intact and name the writer and work. If you add a personal thought, make it clear where the quotation ends and your own words begin.
For images to read alongside these lines, explore our winter-wonderland photographs. For a small seasonal story about attention and growing up, revisit Lily & the Snowman.
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