Activity: Write a Shakespearean sonnet about a moment from your childhood

Tasks: (1) trace out the sonnet’s meter and rhyme scheme; (2) fill in that scheme with a coherent account of something you remember from childhood

Actions: (1) (a) going down the left hand side of a piece of paper, note the meter and rhyme scheme line by line, leaving space for a line of poetry after each note; (2) (a) daydream back into childhood, (b) let a memory strike you, (c) picture it, (d) write it down in a way that fits into the meter and rhyme structure you just outlined.

Operations: (1a) Write:
A unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)
B unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​
A unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

B unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

C unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

D unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

C unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

D unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

E unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

E unstressed, stressed … stressed (10 syllables)​

2a close eyes, think about your childhood

2b open up your heart and mind, let sights, smells, impressions, sounds, conversations from your childhood flit through until one hits you like a freight train: choose that memory.

2c Repeat 2b, but focused on recreating the memory you’ve chosen

2d Let the moment live again through words that fall into the pattern you wrote down.