BuzzFeed News contacted the students who sent the original letter to find out a bit more.

Tomi Baikie is a second year Maths and Physics student, who explained:

We were bitterly disappointed about the lack of popcorn and understandably very upset. We couldn’t express our feelings in prose so we resorted to the only thing we really know: Shakespearean sonnet.

To be honest – we just did it because we wanted to watch a movie with friends, but we couldn’t get the popcorn. It wasn’t quite the same watching the movie without the popcorn, so instead of watching the movie we sent this poem to Sir Richard. The hardest, and most time-consuming part was to get the printer to print on the ivory parchment paper we were using.

Isabelle, a second year Classicist, said:

I was quite excited to read Tesco’s response. Mostly because they referred to Tomi as a woman which made the entire thing that much funnier. A friend suggested we post the poems on St Andrews’ “Overheard” Facebook group. The post reached 1,000 likes in under an hour.

They still both keenly feel the loss of the popcorn in the store, but added, “With the help of the £10 voucher we have found solace in our sorrow.”