Students' Sonnets

Here are some of the sonnets that my British Literature students came up with.

To You--My Missing Lover
When I am first time to meet you.
I can't help myself to missing you at the night.
All the happiness feeling come from you,
My heart always with the joy and delight.
For your smile give me much warm.
Like a cup of tea in the winter.
There is no more unharmony and no more harm.
Just so much sweet emotion occupy my heart when it entered.
Thanks to the God let us meet in here.
Unforgottable for your back shadow fades away.
I can't find that in anywhere.
The sweet memory take me in my dream always.
To you, my missing lover, I will waiting for you in my life.
Loving you in this life if only I'm alive.


Autumn Day
We all went home on Autumn Day.
It was a short happy journey.
In my heart, my hometown is never far away.
My love and soul always live in my lovely small country.
It was bright moon to lighten the way home.
I missed my family for Autumn's sake.
I enjoyed the days I followed my mum.
I loved we all set round to eat mooncake.
Peanuts, delicious food and sweets.
Let us eat so much.
Leaving wonderful memory to us.
It was great happiness for each.
How wonderful Autumn Festival!
It was my short and unforgettable travel!

I had four or five other sonnets that I thought were quite good considering it's being written in a second language. One of my the student's sonnet was "Shall I Compare Thee to a Red Apple" and although some of lines got a little confusing, I thought her last two lines were cute.

Happiness, unhappiness of all my life. And, if God blesses,
I would like to be you Mrs.

When I was reading the students' sonnets, a few of them seemed to be a little too good and some of them were obviously not the students' own work. I started checking and found that the students had turned in two Shakespeare sonnets, two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one poem by a man named Samuel Daniel, and two poems from a Chinese "let-us-do-your-homework-for-you" site. How my ESL students think they can get away with turning in a Shakespeare sonnet and claiming it as their own, I'm not sure. They're going to get a little lecture in class this week.