My younger son has found himself enamored of Shakespeare (Midsummer is a fave, followed closely by Branaugh’s Henry V). A high point of his ninth birthday was meeting Ehren Ziegler of ChopBard podcast during the Birthday Weekend Trip To NYC Blowout.

But last week he woke up, looked out the window at the fresh (surprise!) snow and said, “It makes me feel all Shakespeare-y.”

Well what else is a former English teacher to do?

I showed him the format for a Shakespearean sonnet, demonstrated iambic pentameter for him with a few lines from plays he knew, then let him at it.

The result is this:

Snow to Spring

Silent, the white specks fall upon our earth.
The trees are covered with their clumps of snow.
As the world wakes unto its frozen birth,
It is a joyful scene, but nothing grows.

The snow melts through the wet and soggy ground.
The joy disperses as snow goes away.
But yet, a tiny memory is found
Which flies around the skies and saves the day.

As plants pop up from wet and saddened dirt,
They bloom and blossom ’til they shine like sun.
And tho’ the journey comes with pain and hurt,
With Spring we find the battle lost and won.

I say this: from the snow that came today
It brings a sorrow price that we must pay.

He only asked for help on two lines (bonus points if you can guess which two).

William Shakespeare infographic by KaeLani.