I Think This Poem Is Kind of Into You

Our critic A.O. Scott feels the heat of a wintry lyric by the Nobel laureate Louise Glück.

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Isabella Cotier

By A.O. Scott

A.O. Scott, a critic at large for the Book Review, recorded the poem that appears in this piece.

Dec. 11, 2025

A famous poet once observed that it is difficult to get the news from poems. The weather is a different story. April showers, summer sunshine and — maybe especially — the chill of winter provide an endless supply of moods and metaphors. Poets like to practice a double meteorology, looking out at the water and up at the sky for evidence of interior conditions of feeling.

The inner and outer forecasts don’t always match up. This short poem by Louise Glück starts out cold and stays that way for most of its 11 lines.

And then it bursts into flame.

Early   December   in  

Croton - on - Hudson  

by   Louise   Glück  

Spiked   sun .   The   Hudson ’ s  

Whittled   down   by   ice .  

I   hear   the   bone   dice  

Of   blown   gravel   clicking .   Bone -  

pale ,   the   recent   snow  

Fastens   like   fur   to   the   river .  

Standstill .   We   were   leaving   to   deliver