Poetic Meter for Canterbury Tales

[lisany]

Hi everyone,

We are having a bit of trouble with the poetic meter (iambic pentameter) for Canterbury Tales. When done in old English, it makes sense, but in modern English, it doesn't.

Can anyone offer some help on this?

Thanks!

[Carolyn]

I pulled out my son's copy of Student Workbook A to see how it went for him. There are a number of what I would call irregularities (extra syllables, often at the end of a line, or an extra short syllable in the mniddle of a line) which made scanning this poem tricky for him.

When we get stuck on meter, I refer to the Instructor's Guide, see what the meter is (remembering that the meter is either the predominant meter, or the meter of the first line) and try to read the lines with that rhythm. To be honest, some lines just don't flow in iambic. "Upon the tender shoots and the young sun" is one. It's a good stretch for my mind to wrestle with it -- if it's not iambic, how AM I reading it? And then we just move on.

Carolyn

[lisany]

Thanks, Carolyn.