Lazy Sonnets

Since we’re in the beginning of National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share an activity I led my students in after we read the scene where Mercutio and Tybalt die. This idea comes from Shakespeare Set Free from the Folger Library, edited by Peggy O’Brien.  I highly recommend it if you have to teach Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

We wrote “lazy sonnets,” which are fourteen line poems, one word per line, with the last two lines rhyming. The idea is to capture the most important parts of what we just read, but to use words that capture the drama in the scene.

Here’s what some of the students came up with:

I think the lazy sonnet is a good form for the intensity and sorrow of this scene. And I’m probably being idealistic, but wouldn’t it be great to have the tool of the lazy sonnet in your pocket for when life gets intense and sorrowful? When all you have to give are a few words? You can still create something, though. I think that’s nice to know. I hope I’m passing that on to my students.