Picture-books in Winter
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885
A cosy poem about staying in with story-books while frost covers the world outside. The repeated line "in the picture story-books" gives every stanza a gentle rhythm children can join in on. From Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
Summer fading, winter comes—
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.
Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.
All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.
We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.
How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?
About this poem
Full text confirmed: 'Water now is turned to stone... Still we find the flowing brooks / In the picture story-books.'
About what picture books are for in winter: when the ground outside has frozen solid, the pictures inside a book still show flowing brooks and open water. It's one of several Child's Garden of Verses poems about reading itself, about books as a way indoors when the weather shuts you in. Good to read with an actual picture book open on your lap.
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition