And out of that frozen mist the snow in wavering flakes begins to flow; flake after flake they sink in the dark and silent lake.William Cullen Bryant, The Snow-Shower.
And, when the second morning shone, we looked upon a world unknown, on nothing we could call our own.John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound.
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, seems nowhere to alightRalph Waldo Emerson, The Snow-Storm. To alight is to come down and settle.
Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds!Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass. Alice is talking to her kitten.
Every pine and fir and hemlock wore ermine too dear for an earlJames Russell Lowell, The First Snow-Fall. Ermine is white fur.
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass.
It sifts from leaden sieves, it powders all the wood, it fills with alabaster wool the wrinkles of the road.Emily Dickinson, The Snow. Alabaster is a white stone.
No cloud above, no earth below,—a universe of sky and snow!John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound.
Show all 45 quotes (37 more)
Snow, continued
Over the woodlands brown and bare, over the harvest-fields forsaken, silent, and soft, and slow descends the snow.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Snow-Flakes.
The sky is low, the clouds are mean, a travelling flake of snow across a barn or through a rut debates if it will go.Emily Dickinson, Beclouded.
The snow falls on every wood and field, and no crevice is forgotten; by the river and the pond, on the hill and in the valley.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk. A crevice is a narrow crack.
The snow had begun in the gloaming, and busily all the night had been heaping field and highway with a silence deep and white.James Russell Lowell, The First Snow-Fall. The gloaming is dusk.
Whenever a snowflake leaves the sky, it turns and turns to say "Good-by! Good-by, dear clouds, so cool and gray!" Then lightly travels on its way.Mary Mapes Dodge, Snowflakes.
Frost, Ice and Wind 13
Black are my steps on silver sod; thick blows my frosty breath abroad; and tree and house, and hill and lake, are frosted like a wedding-cake.Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time, in A Child's Garden of Verses. Sod is grassy ground.
But cheerily the chickadee singeth to me on fence and treeJohn Townsend Trowbridge, Midwinter.
The cold wind burns my face, and blows its frosty pepper up my nose.Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, from the snow five thousand summers oldJames Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal.
From the eaves and fences hang stalactites of snow, and in the yard stand stalagmites covering some concealed core.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk. Stalactites hang down; stalagmites stand up.
I will not go like that blustering train, the wind and the snow, the hail and the rain, who make so much bustle and noise in vain, but I'll be as busy as they!Hannah Flagg Gould, The Frost. The Frost is speaking; a train is a line of people or things.
The little brook heard it and built a roof 'neath which he could house him, winter-proofJames Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal. The roof is ice; 'neath is beneath.
The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow, and what will poor Robin do then, poor thing?Traditional nursery rhyme. Doth is an old word for does.
Then he went to the mountain, and powdered its crest, he climbed up the trees, and their boughs he dressed with diamonds and pearlsHannah Flagg Gould, The Frost. Boughs are branches.
Water now is turned to stone nurse and I can walk upon; still we find the flowing brooks in the picture story-books.Robert Louis Stevenson, Picture-Books in Winter, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
When icicles hang by the wall, and Dick the shepherd blows his nail, and Tom bears logs into the hall, and milk comes frozen home in pailWilliam Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. From the song headed Winter.
When winter winds are piercing chill, and through the hawthorn blows the galeHenry Wadsworth Longfellow, Woods in Winter.
While I was surveying, the ice, which was sixteen inches thick, undulated under a slight wind like water.Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Undulated means moved in waves.
Long Nights 8
Already the stars have lost some of their sparkle, and a dull, leaden mist skirts the horizon.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk.
And ere the early bedtime came the white drift piled the window-frameJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound. Ere means before.
Before the stars have left the skies, at morning in the dark I riseRobert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed, a frosty, fiery sleepy-head; blinks but an hour or two; and then, a blood-red orange, sets again.Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
Let us go into this deserted woodman's hut, and see how he has passed the long winter nights and the short and stormy days.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk.
The sun that brief December day rose cheerless over hills of grayJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound. The first lines.
Unwarmed by any sunset light the gray day darkened into nightJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound.
We sleep, and at length awake to the still reality of a winter morning.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk.
By the Fire 11
And one by one the smokes begin to ascend from the chimneys amidst the trees and snows.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk.
At evening when the lamp is lit, around the fire my parents sit; they sit at home and talk and sing, and do not play at anything.Robert Louis Stevenson, The Land of Story-Books, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
Bread and milk for breakfast, and woollen frocks to wear, and a crumb for robin redbreast on the cold days of the year.Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song.
Close by the jolly fire I sit to warm my frozen bones a bitRobert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time, in A Child's Garden of Verses.
The house-dog on his paws outspread laid to the fire his drowsy headJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound.
Shut in from all the world without, we sat the clean-winged hearth about, content to let the north-wind roar in baffled rage at pane and doorJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound. A hearth is the floor of a fireplace.
Summer fading, winter comes—frosty mornings, tingling thumbs, window robins, winter rooks, and the picture story-books.Robert Louis Stevenson, Picture-Books in Winter, in A Child's Garden of Verses. A rook is a kind of crow.
There's snow on the fields, and cold in the cottage, while I sit in the chimney nook supping hot pottage.Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song. Pottage is thick soup.
We enjoy now, not an oriental, but a boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces, and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.Henry David Thoreau, A Winter Walk. Boreal means northern; motes are specks.
We piled, with care, our nightly stack of wood against the chimney-backJohn Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound.
What matter how the night behaved? What matter how the north-wind raved? Blow high, blow low, not all its snow could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow.John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow-Bound. Ruddy means reddish.
How this list was compiled: Every line was matched word for word on 2026-09-30 against the Project Gutenberg plain-text edition it comes from (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/N, where N is): 20226 Whittier, Snow-Bound; 12843 Emerson, Poems; 1365 Longfellow, Complete Poetical Works; 13310 Lowell, Complete Poetical Works; 12242 Dickinson, Poems, Three Series; 22922 The Posy Ring; 2621 The Home Book of Verse, volume 3; 12 Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass; 9846 Thoreau, Excursions; 25609 Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses; 100 Shakespeare, Complete Works; 205 Thoreau, Walden; 2619 The Home Book of Verse, volume 1; 76703 Rossetti, Sing-Song. Verse is printed as running text with line-opening capitals lowered. Every named author died before 1929; the years were read from the Project Gutenberg catalog pages, the dates The Home Book of Verse prints under each poem, or Wikipedia. The one-line notes are our own. Licence: own work
How it works
Each winter cryptogram hides a line about the cold months from a poem or a nature book: snow, frost and ice, long nights, the fire indoors. No holiday is in it. The puzzle opens with two letters filled in.
Read the full guide
Four lists of winter lines
Each puzzle is one line from four lists. Snow has Whittier's universe of sky and snow, and Alice asking her kitten if it hears the snow against the window-panes. Frost, Ice and Wind has icicles, a frozen brook and frosty pepper up the nose. Long Nights is late sunrise and early dark. By the Fire has a house-dog with his drowsy head laid to the fire.
Where to start
Begin with any one-letter word: it can only be A or I. No longer word turns up in more of these lines than SNOW, so look for a four-letter word that comes back, or sits inside a longer one, as in SNOWFLAKE.
Whittier's Snow-Bound rhymes in pairs: below and snow, day and gray, head and outspread. Guess the rhyme and test it in the code.
A solved line shows a note on its old words: the gloaming is dusk, ermine is white fur, pottage is thick soup.
Questions and answers
Can I print a winter cryptogram with its answer?
Yes. Press Print puzzle: the sheet has a name and date line, the coded line and an A to Z tracking grid. A second page carries the key. Solve a line and More options appears, where Print the answer key too can be unticked.
Where do the winter lines come from?
From poems and nature books by authors who died before 1929, among them Whittier, Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lowell, Thoreau and Lewis Carroll. Every line was checked word for word against the Project Gutenberg edition on 30 September 2026.
Are there Christmas lines?
No. Nothing here is about Christmas or the new year: the lines are snow, frost, dark mornings and firesides. Christmas lines have a page of their own, the Christmas cryptogram, and no line here is on it.
Does every puzzle use the same code?
No. New puzzle, which appears once a line is solved or shown, shuffles a new key in which no letter stands for itself, so a line you have met comes back in a different code.