<p>Geoffrey Chaucer 1342(?) – 1400</p><p>“The father of English Poetry”</p><p>Language of Chaucer = Middle English, the vernacular Language of aristocracy = Latin and French</p><p>Chaucer was born into a middle-class family in London. Rose to political power; became a member of Parliament.</p><p>In 1373 and 1378, Chaucer traveled to Italy; influenced by Dante and Petrarch.</p><p>Began Canterbury Tales in 1387 but never completed</p><p>Dominant meter is iambic pentameter – ten syllables per line with a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.</p><p>Couplet – two lines of rhymed poetry</p><p>The Canterbury Tales Told during a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury</p><p>The General Prologue . journey takes place in the spring . pilgrims start at the Tabard Inn in Southwark . poet-pilgrim and twenty-nine others embark to visit the shrine of Thomas a Becket . The host of the tavern suggests each pilgrim tell two tales each way of the journey</p>