Chaucer: Remember Him?

Second only to Shakespeare in the amount of material written about him, we still don’t know much about Geoffrey Chaucer’s short poems. More questions than answers have come up regarding his lyrics.

In looking at some of Chaucer’s short poems, it appears the writer broke some of the rules he is so well known for following. For four centuries we’ve been counting his syllables, painstakingly trying to write the perfect poem.

Some of his short poems or lyrics suggest that he experimented with forms that were liberating rather than confining. Somehow, I can’t imagine Chaucer writing free verse. Apparently, neither can anyone else because his design strategies for short poems are currently being studied, looking at the often-read author and his contributions in a new way. This may be an interesting research project…there is always grant money for research projects such as this. People who like Chaucer, doing research, and are good at writing grant proposals have just found another niche.