Chaucer
An old man in a lodge within a park;The chamber walls depicted all aroundWith portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound.And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,Whose song comes with the sunshine through the darkOf painted glass in leaden lattice bound;He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound,Then writeth in a book like any clerk.He is the poet of the dawn, who wroteThe Canterbury Tales, and his old ageMade beautiful with song; and as I readI hear the crowing cock, I hear the noteOf lark and linnet, and from every pageRise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead.
Words in this poem
- huntsman n.
- One who hunts, or who practices hunting.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- clerk n.
- A clergyman or ecclesiastic. [Either OF. clerc, fr. L. clericus a priest, or AS. clerc, cleric, clerk, priest, fr. L. clericus, fr. Gr. Clergy.]
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chaucer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Chaucer, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/chaucer.html, id L17740.
Form and metre
Chaucer is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABB-CDECDE parkA · aroundB · houndB · larkA · darkA · boundB · soundB · clerk · wroteC · ageD · readE · noteC · pageD · meadE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| An old man in a lodge within a park; | 10 | ·········· |
| The chamber walls depicted all around | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Whose song comes with the sunshine through the dark | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| He listeneth and he laugheth at the sound, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Then writeth in a book like any clerk. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Canterbury Tales, and his old age | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| Made beautiful with song; and as I read | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of lark and linnet, and from every page | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Rise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.