Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered the poets' poet because he was the first to use English as a literary language.

Main work => "Canterbury Tales":

·         Collection of 24 tales  are linked by a general narrative framework (borrowing from Boccaccio)

·         29 pilgrims going to Canterbury on pilgrimage (Thomas à Becket's shrine) told tales during their journey

·         Characters represent all the social classes of the late Middle Ages and they are lively and not one-sided

·         Chaucer started to write the tales in 1387

·         Tales in verse:

o    Rhyming couplets

o    Iambic pentameter

·         First copy in a manuscript

·         The work was not completed