Poems about weather encapsulate the capricious moods of the atmosphere. They capture the whimsy of rain, the majesty of thunderstorms, the serenity of snowfall, and the warmth of sunshine.
These verses personify weather, reflecting human emotions in its turbulent or tranquil moments. Poems about weather often serve as metaphors for life’s unpredictability, reminding us of our vulnerability to the forces of nature.
They offer solace during storms and celebrate the beauty of the ever-shifting skies that mirror our own changing lives.
This poem explores nature’s overwhelming force and its impact on human lives, capturing a tense struggle between man and the environment.
In 'Wind,' the weather is portrayed as fierce and destructive, shaping the entire atmosphere of the poem. The storm dominates the landscape, with crashing woods, shaking hills, and relentless wind. It symbolizes nature's raw power, overwhelming and uncontrollable. The extreme weather creates a sense of fear and helplessness, showing how humans are at the mercy of natural forces.
This house has been far out at sea all night, The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills, Winds stampeding the fields under the window Floundering black astride and blinding wet
‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ by Emily Dickinson is a poem about hope. It is depicted through the famous metaphor of a bird.
Dickinson uses weather with mastery here. Gales, storms, and extreme climates serve as vivid symbols of adversity. It is strong imagery, though storms as a metaphor for hardship are common in poetry. Her use is elegant but not wholly unique in the history of weather-based symbolism.
‘Eventide’ portrays an aspect of the evening, which is peaceful hence the sunset nature giving people hope and consolation.
As it pertains to the topic of weather, the boy appealingly explores the topic as the sky in the evening has color as the sun sets behind the mountains. The preceding description prepares for the alteration of the weather and climactic shift in the mood of the piece and the subsequent quietude of the scene. This is true because features depicted in a poem describe nature’s weather, which changes and the beauty of the sky.
‘Tractor’ by Ted Hughes is a powerful poem that represents and narrates the fight and victory of machinery with rich assertion and proper lexical equipment used.
The poem focuses on weather through the description of the effects of winter. The environment that is depicted by the snow on the ground and the head-piercing gale adds to the element of adversarial force to make the struggle of the speaker with the immobile mechanical entity all the more desperate. Hughes significantly employs weather, which dials the focus on force and power, and makes it judicious to human struggle against the forces of nature.
The tractor stands frozen - an agony
To think of. All night
Snow packed its open entrails. Now a head-pincering gale,
‘Providence’ looks at the poet’s memories of the 1969 Hurricane Camille – the devastation that it caused and the poet’s reaction.
The devastating effect of weather is central to this poem. The poet does not go into very much detail about what it was like to experience the hurricane - only dedicating a few lines to their family's experience - but they show the aftermath and the destruction caused by the hurricane.
Emily Dickinson’s ‘It sifts from Leaden Sieves’ explores how snow transforms the landscape, showing its impact on our surroundings.
The poem, in fact, creatively captures the nuances of the changing weather as the snow or 'it' fills 'Summer's empty Room -.' Through the dark gray clouds or 'leaden sieves' that snow, it presents the changing weather as nature's perpetual cycle takes its turn into a new season. It hints at the dynamic nature of weather, its impacts on our surroundings, environment, seasonal shifts, and mood—like the poem's serene weather uplifts readers' mood.
‘Exposure’ offers an in-depth view of life in the frosted winter of Northern France, where soldiers on duty would be left exposed to the elements.
The weather in this poem is not just a setting. It feels like a force working against the soldiers. Owen describes the wind, snow, and ice as though they are attacking the men. He compares the cold to bullets and the snow to a silent killer. The soldiers are powerless against it. This shows how nature can be just as deadly as war. The harsh winter becomes one of the main reasons why the soldiers suffer and die.
Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,
Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,
Exploring relationship intricacies, ‘Cozy Apologia’ by Dove merges rhyme and disarray, reflecting on pragmatic bonds and revelations.
The presence of the hurricane is more than just a detail about setting. It helps shape the poem’s quiet, reflective mood. The storm becomes a reason for the speaker to pause and think deeply about her relationship and feelings. It adds a calm kind of pressure that gently surrounds the speaker as she looks inward. The weather gives the poem its atmosphere and plays a key role in pushing the speaker into personal reflection and emotional honesty.
‘November Blue’ by Alice Meynell draws attention to the weather in November and what people do to make up for it.
This poem by Alice Meynell is a good poem about weather. This is because the poem takes a look at the weather in November (in anticipation of winter) and what people do to improve the mood it brings with it. It is important to mention that even though this is the major topic of the poem, so many other poems perform better in this aspect.
Inspired by the scenery he encountered on his trip through Europe when he arrived at Chamonix, ‘Mont Blanc’ is a poem about the untameable and majestic nature that the author encountered as he considers how this reflects on human consciousness.
Weather is discussed several times as a way to show the power of nature. Weather is one of the forces of nature that is compared to humans and it is also used as a way to show what is happening on Mont Blanc itself.
The everlasting universe of things
Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves,
‘The Heat of Autumn’ attempts to illustrate the exquisite bittersweetness that distinguishes the warmth of fall from summer.
The poet uses the weather as a symbol of the effect that autumn has on the speaker. Unlike the warmth of summer, which "ripens apples," autumn is a time of change that can imbue things with renewed purpose. Rather than a frigid fall more closely associated with bleakness and death the one envisioned in the poem is radiantly welcoming even at its most poignant.
‘London Snow’ by Robert Bridges describes an early morning snowfall in London and the reactions of those who walk within it.
The poem shows how weather can completely change the mood of a place. The snowfall brings silence to the city, covering everything in a clean, soft layer. It makes the streets quieter and slows down the usual rush of life. The weather affects not just the way London looks but also how people feel. Some admire it, some enjoy it, and others simply take a moment to notice it.
When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
‘Storm Warnings’ by Adrienne Rich draws attention to the turbulence brewing, from the perspective of a worried resident.
Adrienne Rich's ‘Storm Warnings’ explores weather as a topic. There are two types of storms referred to in the poem. The naturally occurring storm is about the weather and how human predictions can be wrong. Even though the poem does a good job of this topic, it does not come top of the list when it comes to poems about weather.
‘The North Wind Doth Blow,’ also sometimes known as ‘The Robin,’ is a short English nursery rhyme that may date as far back as 16th century England.
The poem focuses on how the cold winter weather affects the robin. The north wind and snow make it hard for the bird to stay warm, and the poem shows how weather plays a big role in the lives of animals. It helps readers understand how creatures, like the robin, have to cope with changing seasons and weather patterns to survive.
‘The Winter Nosegay’ beautifully contrasts the harshness of winter with the beauty of a sheltered garden, symbolizing the power of love and friendship.
The harshness of winter is contrasted with the beauty of sheltered flowers. Cowper wrote of winter as a season of "sky so severe," which expresses a great contrast between that frozen outdoor scene that cannot support the growth of any plants with the blooms sheltered within.
Our Poem Guides, PDFs, Study Tools, and Articles are created by a team of qualified poetry experts to provide an unparalleled in-depth look into poetry.
