A Mind of Winter: Poems for a Snowy Season

A beautiful gift book celebrating winter in all its guises

A Mind of Winter collects some thirty of the most moving poems on the experience of winter. Illustrated throughout with elegant period woodcuts, the poems range from the most traditional and formal ( James Russell Lowell’s “The First Snow Fall” and John Greenleaf Whittier’s “Snow-Bound”) to the more contemporary and diverse (Rafael Campo’s “Begging for Change in Winter” and Gertrude Schnackenberg’s “The Paperweight”). Each poem has a special gift to offer readers on a frosty night.

Other contributors Wallace Stevens (“A Mind of Winter” is taken from his poem “The Snow Man”), Rosanna Warren, Emily Dickinson, Richard Wilbur, Angelina Weld Grimké, Amy Lowell, Charles Simic, Peter Davison, Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Marge Piercy, James Merrill, Maxine Kumin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Anne Sexton, Anne Bradstreet, and Jay Wright.

Acclaimed poet Donald Hall contributes a celebratory introduction; he lives in New Hampshire. Robert Atwan is the editor of the Best American Essays series.