'The Canterbury Tales'
'Whan the Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath pierced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So pricketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages .......'
Geoffrey Chaucer
My thoughts are of the flow of the words, enticing one to join the pilgrims. The rhyme and rhythm are so beautiful that one does not need to analyse each word but just allow the whole to flow.
What are your thoughts?
And writing poetry was often something that Chaucer did in his spare time, as he held many different postions over his fifty six/fifty seven years of life.
6 comments:
I'm currently reading Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata and enjoying it.
On your post: I like it when poetry has rythmn like island music enticing the reader to dance and play.
...and bathed every veyne in swich licour...
Love that line !
Ann, you take me back to my years at college in France. I was an English student and struggling with middle English was part of the fun :-)
Will try 'Snow Country, 'Fashion' and thank you for your comment.
Lala, it does, doesn't it ... and it was fun. Imagine what life sounded like in a market place at that time!
I didn't appreciate Chaucer when we did his his tales at school. Now however, I love the flow of the words and would like to re-read them.
You're right, it is the flow - in what we would call a rich Northern accent, or that's what's it seems to me.
Dead right, Deborah and Spangle! Thank you for reading and commenting!
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