"Longing" by Matthew Arnold

The third grade students did some pretty funny and interesting stuff with the poem "Longing" by Matthew Arnold.

Here's the original:

Longing
by Matthew Arnold

Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,
A messenger from radiant climes,
And smile on thy new world, and be
As kind to others as to me!

Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,
Come now, and let me dream it truth,
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say, My love why sufferest thou?

Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

I put the students into groups and asked them to translate the poem into the more modern English. Here are the results.

Group 1:

I want you!!

If you come into my dream,
I'll be happy and you will make my day.

Come to me!! You angel!
You smile to the world with the
same smile you did to me.

To tell you the truth, I want you to
part my hair, kiss me, and care about me.

I love you!!

Love me!!!

Group 2:

I just want to dream about you.
And some day I will be happy again.
Time dreaming about you can cure
my hopeless, lonely heart, and days.

Please come a thousand times to my dreams (or me)
Dear angel from heaven.
She smiles beautifully to everyone, and also
She smiles as same to me!
She's kind.

Please open your heart, and be truthful to me.
Please come to me, and I want this dream to
really happen.
Touch my hair, and kiss me.
And ask me, why are you depressed?

I just want to dream about you.
And someday I will be happy again.
Time, dreaming about you can cure
my hopeless, lonely heart, and days.

(On a side note, Group 2 also included the line:

touch my body put me on the floor
wrestle me around, play with me some more.

However, I don't think that was originally intended for their poem.)

Group 3:

Hey, come into my dream!
Then I'd be happy, yay!
At night I'm too excited
at daytime I'm doomed.

I feel like you came here a thousand times
your (sic) like an angel from heaven.
And smile to me and be kind.
just like you do to others.

Even though you never came here
Please! Come right now
and touch my hair, kiss my forehead
and ask me, "What's wrong with you?"

These have been reproduced here exactly as they were written, errors and all, to give an idea how my students are doing.

I thought these were very funny.

Date: 2009⁄06⁄29 17:57｜Permalink｜Author：nelp

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