Geoffrey_Chaucer

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O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull; Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
• Iambic rhythms come relatively naturally in
English. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry; it is used in many of the major English poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet, and some of the traditional rhymed stanza forms. William Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets.
Other works
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（The Book of the Duchess）《公爵夫人之书》 （The House of Fame） 《声誉之堂》 （The Parliament of Fowls） 《百鸟议会》 （Troilus and Criseyde） [krɪ’seɪdə] 《特罗勒斯与克丽西德》
• 30 pilgrims would have told 120 stories. But Chaucer
had actually completed only 22 stories, with two more existing in fragments.
THE CANTERBURY TALES
Hale Waihona Puke Baidu
His literary career
• a. French period (1360-1372) in French • •
“ Romance of the rose” --French courtly love poetry b. Italian period (1372-1385) in Latin “ The legend of Good Women” c. English period (1386-1400) in English “ The Canterbury Tales” --his masterpiece which marks his ultimate achievement.
The Canterbury Tales 《坎特伯雷故事集》
• It is one of the most famous works in all literature. It
begins with a general prologue that explains the occasion for the narration of the tales and gives a description of the pilgrims who narrate the tales, and then follow the twenty-four tales that make up the bulk of the book, plus the separate prologues and the links that accompany some of the tales.
• Dante 但丁(意大利诗人,1265-1321) The Divine Comedy
• Ovid: Roman poet known for his explorations of love,
especially the Art of Love (c. 1 b.c. ) and Metamorphoses [metə’mɔ:fəʊz] (c. a.d. 8). 奥维德：公元前 43年- 公元 17年罗马 诗人，以其对爱的研究，尤其是《爱的艺术》（公元前1年 ) 和《变形记》（公元 8年）而闻名。
• A heroic couplet
is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Legend of Good Women and the Canterbury Tales and was perfected by John Dryden in the Restoration Age.
• He was influenced by French and Italian literature.
Some previous literary sources
• Boccaccio [bəu’kɑ:tʃiəu]薄伽丘(Giovanni, 1313-1375, 文艺复兴
时期意大利作家, Decameron [di’kæ mərən ]《十日谈》的作者)
• 1. the founder of English
• •
poetry 2. the outstanding English poet before William Shakespeare. 3. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in writing in English at a time when much court poetry宫廷诗 was still composed in French or Latin.
A frequently-cited example illustrating the use of heroic couplets is this passage from Cooper's Hill by John Denham, part of his description of the Thames:
The General Prologue
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The Knight's Tale The Miller's tale The Reeve's Tale The Cook's Tale The Man of Law's Tale The Wife of Bath's Tale The Friar's Tale The Sompnour's Tale The Clerk's Tale The Merchant's Tale The Squire's Tale The Franklin's Tale
Examples of iambic pentameter
The tick-TOCK rhythm of iambic pentameter can be heard in the opening line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 12:
• When I do count the clock that tells the time
• He contributed importantly in the second half of the
14th century to the management of public affairs as courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three successive kings— Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his hobby—the writing of poetry—for which he is remembered.
The following line from John Keats' To Autumn is a straightforward example:
• To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
The General Prologue ---in middle English
Geoffrey Chaucer’ life (1343—1400)
• He was born in a wine merchant family, a •
page to Elizabeth. He had broad and intimate acquaintance with persons high and low in all walks of life and knew well the whole social life of his time.
About poetry
• A couplet • A heroic couplet • Iambic pentameter
Rhyme rhythm
• Iambic pentameter is a commonly used type of
metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in that line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of foot that is used, known as the iamb, which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these "feet".
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The Doctor's Tale The Pardoner's Tale The Shipman's Tale The Prioress's Tale Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas Chaucer's Tale of Meliboeus The Monk's Tale The Nun's Priest's Tale The Second Nun's Tale The Canon's Yeoman's Tale The Manciple's Tale The Parson's Tale
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Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5 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 halfe cours yronne, • And smale foweles maken melodye, 10 That slepen al the nyght with open eye• (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); • Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages • And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes • To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;