Blow, blow, thou winter wind (As You Like It)

William Shakespeare

Teacher card

Published: 1623, in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Length: 14 lines, 72 words, 1 word in 36 is long
Year band: Reading load: Years 3–4. A guide from word length, not a curriculum level.
Themes: wind, winter
Time: 5–10 min, depending on the activity

The text

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,Thou art not so unkindAs man’s ingratitude.Thy tooth is not so keen,Because thou art not seen,Although thy breath be rude.Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly.Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.Then, heigh-ho, the holly!This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,That dost not bite so nighAs benefits forgot.Though thou the waters warp,

William Shakespeare (died 1616), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (1623), lines 16313–16327 of Project Gutenberg ebook #100. Public domain in Australia: the author died before 1955. Copied word for word and checked against the ebook.

What to do with it

One link and one task line for each activity. Send a student the one you want them to do, or print this page and hand it round; each link has a QR code.

Its lines are dealt for the sky in the weather poemsin weatherline · 14 lines · about 5–10 min
Task for students (you can change the sentence before you print; nothing is saved)See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
weatherline.popplepoetry.com/sources#sx-winter

Send the whole hand-out

This page’s link. Students open it, read the text and pick what to do; nothing asks them to sign in.

Link for the whole text

https://popplepoetry.com/find/shakespeare-blow-blow-thou-winter-wind · popplepoetry.com