The Norton Anthology o» r Poetry FIFTH EDITION Margaret Ferguson UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Mary Jo Salter MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE Jon Stallworthy OXFORD UNIVERSITY W • W • NORTON & COMPANY • New York • London W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People's Institute, the adult education division of New York City's Cooper Union. The Nortons soon expanded their program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By mid-century, the two major pillars of Norton's publishing program— trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family trans- ferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees. Copyright © 2005, 1996, 1983, 1975, 1970 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all of the copyright notices, pp. 2140—50 constitute an extension of the copyright page. The text of this book is composed in Fairfield Medium with the display set in Bernhard Modern. Composition by Binghamton Valley Composition. Manufacturing by R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Inc. Editor: Julia Reidhead Developmental Editor: Kurt Wildermuth Electronic Media and Ancillaries Editor: Eileen Connell Assistant Editor: Erin Dye Permissions Manager and Associate: Nancy Rodwan, Margaret Gorenstein Book Designer: Antonina Krass Production Manager: Diane O'Connor Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Norton anthology of poetry / [edited by] Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy.—5th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-393-97920-2 (pbk.) 1. English poetry. 2. American poetry. I. Ferguson, Margaret, W., 1948— II. Salter, Mary Jo. III. Stallworthy, Jon. PR1174.N6 2004b 821.008—dc22 2004058100 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 www.wwnorton.com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London WIT 3QT 1234567890 THE GENERAL PROLOGUE / 19 Herkne0 to my roun.0 listen I song An hendy hap ichabbe yhent— . Fowls in the Frith4 Fowles in the frith, The fisshes in the flood, And I mon° waxe0 wood:0 must I go I mad Much sorwe° I walke with sorrow 5 For beste of boon5 and blood. I Am of Ireland6 Ich° am of Irlonde, I And of the holy londe Of Irlonde. Goode sire, praye ich thee, 5 For of0 sainte0 charitee, sake of I holy Com and dance with me In Irlonde. GEOFFREY CHAUCER ca. 1343-1400 FROM THE CANTERBURY TALES The General Prologue Whan that April with his° showres soote° its /fresh The droughte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veine in swich licour,1 Of which vertu2 engendred is the flowr; 5 Whan Zephyrus° eek° with his sweete breeth the West Wind I also Inspired0 hath in every holt° and heeth0 breathed into /grove /field The tendre croppes,0 and the yonge sonne shoots Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,3 4. This poem, with a musical accompaniment a longer poem; it is written in prose in the manu- designed for two voices, appears on one side of a script. The first three lines are the burden, or page in a manuscript comprised mainly of legal refrain. texts (it contains no other poems). The title means 1. Such liquid. Veine: i.e., in plants. "Birds in the Woods." 2. By the power of which. 5. Either "the best" or "beast" of bone. The ambi- 3. The sun is young because it has run only half- guity allows for both religious and erotic interpre- way through its course in Aries, the Ram—the first tations. sign of the zodiac in the solar year. 6. This lyric may be a fragment or an extract from 20 / GEOFFREY CHAUCER And smale fowles0 maken melodye birds That sleepen al the night with open ye°— eye So priketh hem° Nature in hir° corages0— them I their I hearts Thanne longen folk to goon° on pilgrimages, go And palmeres for to seeken straunge strondes To feme halwes,4 couthe0 in sondry0 londes; known I various And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond to Canterbury they wende, The holy blisful martyr5 for to seeke That hem hath holpen0 whan that they were seke.0 helped!sick Bifel° that in that seson on a day, it happened In Southwerk6 at the Tabard as I lay, Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage To Canterbury with ful° devout corage, very At night was come into that hostelrye Wei nine and twenty in a compaignye Of sondry folk, by aventure0 yfalle chance In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle That toward Canterbury wolden0 ride. would The chambres and the stables weren wide, And wel we weren esed at the beste.7 And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,8 So hadde I spoken with hem everichoon0 every one That I was of hir felaweshipe anoon,0 at once And made forward9 erly for to rise, To take oure way ther as I you devise.1 But nathelees,0 whil I have time and space,2 nevertheless Er° that I ferther in this tale pace,0 before I proceed Me thinketh it accordant to resoun3 To telle you al the condicioun Of eech of hem, so as it seemed me, And whiche they were, and of what degree,0 social rank And eek in what array that they were inne: And at a knight thanne0 wol I first biginne. then A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man, That fro the time that he first bigan To riden out, he loved chivalrye, Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye.4 Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,° war And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,0 further As wel in Cristendom as hethenesse,0 heathen lands And5 evere honoured for his worthinesse. At Alisandre6 he was whan it was wonne; 4. Far-off shrines. Palmeres: palmers, wide- 1. I.e., where I describe to you. ranging pilgrims—especially those who sought out 2. I.e., while I have the opportunity. the "straunge strondes" (foreign shores) of the 3. It seems to me according to reason. Holy Land. 4. Courtesy. Trouthe: integrity. Freedom: gener- 5. St. Thomas a Becket, murdered in Canterbury osity of spirit. Cathedral (1170); his shrine was associated with 5. I.e., and he was. healing. 6. The Knight has taken part in campaigns fought 6. Southwark, site of the Tabard Inn, was then a against three groups who threatened Christian suburb of London, south of the Thames River. Europe during the fourteenth century: the Mus- 7. Accommodated in the best possible way. lims in the Near East, from whom Alexandria was 8. I.e., had set. seized after a famous siege; the northern barbari- 9. I.e., (we) made an agreement. ans in Prussia, Lithuania, and Russia; and the THE GENERAL PROLOGUE / 21 Ful ofte time he hadde the boord bigonne7 Aboven alle nacions in Pruce; In Lettou had he reised,° and in Ruce, campaigned No Cristen man so ofte of his degree; 0 In Gernade at the sege eek hadde he be Granada Of Algezir, and riden in Belmarye; At Lyeis was he, and at Satalye, 0 Whan they were wonne; and in the Grete See Mediterranean Sea 0 At many a noble arivee hadde he be. military landing At mortal batailes8 hadde he been fifteene, And foughten for oure faith at Tramissene 9 0 In listes thries, and ay° slain his fo. thrice I always This ilke° worthy Knight hadde been also same Somtime with the lord of Palatye1 0 Again another hethen in Turkye; against 0 And everemore he hadde a soverein pris. reputation And though that he were worthy, he was wis,2 0 And of his port as meeke as is a maide. demeanor 0 He nevere yit no vilainye ne saide rudeness In al his lif unto no manere wight:3 0 0 0 He was a verray, parfit, gentil knight. true I perfect I noble But for to tellen you of his array, 0 4 His hors were goode, but he was nat gay. horses Of fustian he wered a gipoun5 Al bismotered with his haubergeoun,6 For he was late° come from his viage,° lately I expedition And wente for to doon his pilgrimage. With him ther was his sone, a yong Squier,7 A lovere and a lusty bacheler, 0 With lokkes crulle as° they were laid in presse. curly I as if Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse. Of his stature he was of evene° lengthe, moderate 0 0 And wonderly delivere, and of greet strengthe. agile I great And he hadde been som time in chivachye8 In Flandres, in Artois, and Picardye, And born him wel as of so litel space,9 In hope to stonden in his lady° grace. lady's 0 Embrouded was he as it were a mede, embroidered I mead, meadow 0 Al ful of fresshe flowres, white and rede; red 0 Singing he was, or floiting, al the day: whistling He was as fressh as is the month of May. Short was his gowne, with sleeves longe and wide Moors in North Africa. The place-names in the fol- 4. I.e., gaily dressed.