Geoffrey Chaucer|"Father of English Poetry"|short biography|wiki|born|dead|works|contribution to english poetry

Geoffrey Chaucer Father of English poetry

Geoffrey Chaucer ,known as the father of English literature is widely considered as the greatest English poet of the middle ages ,he occupies a unique position in the middle ages .His contribution to the English literature is much more important than that of his predecessor and contemporaries.

Born - London , England 1343
Died - October 1400

Why Chaucer is called "The Father of English poetry"?what were his contribution to English literature?

Chaucer is called as "The Father of English poetry" because his contribution to the development of English poetry and literature is much more significant then that of his predecessors.It is Chaucer who made tremendous contribution to the evolution of the English poetry .

One of the most outstanding contribution of Chaucer to the English literature and language is that he employed east Midland dialect in his work out of the four prevalent dialects which was - the southern ,the East Midland,the northern and the Kentish . None after Chaucer thought of using other dialect than east midland In any literacy work of consequence moreover Chaucer also selected one of the three languages which were holding supreme position in England at that time that were - Latin ,French and English .

At that time Latin and French were more fashionable than the other poor vernicular English.During his time Chaucer purified the English language and shaped it into a fit instruments for its use.

Chaucer has also contributed a lot in the versification of English and this contribution is no less striking than to the English language.
In some of his works for example: Troilus and cressida he uses the seventh line stanza of deca- syllabic line. This metre is called Rhyme - royal or chauserian stanza .

Moreover Chaucer has also been acclaimed as the first realist, first humorist, the first narrative artist, the first great character painter, and the first great metrical artist in English literature.

Chaucer's major contribution towards the content of poetry is his advocacy and strict adherence to realism . Chaucer's in one of his famous work Canterbury tales,embodies a new effort in the history of English literature,as it strictly deals with real man ,manners and life .The outstanding contribution of Chaucer's is also seen in his art of characterisation in the Prologue.His prologue to Canterbury tales has been rightly been called The Prologue to the Modern Fiction.

One can discover in Chaucer's works many elements of drama which were altogether missing in the poetry before him ,thus Chaucer has been hailed as the father of English novel before novel was born and the father of English drama before drama appeared in the literary scene.He has been called as "The fountain source of the first stream of English literature".

Language and versification OF Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey chaucer Father of English poetry

Chaucer's poetry represents his versatility and greatness as a poet. In many aspects Chaucer is a pioneer among his contemporaries,he alone avoided religious bias in his writings ,looked at the world in a tolerant and amused manner and wrote in the native dialect and improved it into a language fit for poetry.

A Critic rightly says that - " Chaucer found his English as a dialect and left it a language"

When Chaucer started his literary career ,the English speech and the English of writing were confusingly fluid and unsettled. The English language was divided into a number of dialects which were employed in different parts of the country. Four of them were more prominent than the others and these four were the southern,the east midland ,the northern,and the Kentish.out of this four dialects the east midland which was spoken in London and it's surroundings areas was the simplest in grammar and syntax.

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Chaucers techniques of Metres

Chaucer employs three important principle metres in his works . In the Canterbury tales,he mostly uses lines of ten syllable each with generally 5 accents and the lines run into couplet.

In Troilus and cressida he use the 7 line stanza or decasyllabic lines having the rhyme scheme ab.ab.bcc. This metre was borrowed by him from France and is called Rhyme royal or chauserian stanza.

The third principle metres employed by him is the octosyllabic couplet with 4accents and end rhyme .

Apart from these principles metres Chaucer also employed for the first time a number of other stanza forms in his shorts poems .

Chaucer showed that alliteration was not necessary in poetry . alliteration was a very common forms of verse in the middle ages before Chaucer .He replaced it with rhyme .The felicity of his diction and melody of his verse are remarkable.

It would not be wrong to say of Chaucer that he found English poetry in ''brick'' and left it in "marble" or we can say that "Chaucer found English language as a dialect and left it a language"

Thus Chaucer may be designated as "The Father of English poetry and the English language"