The Poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer

3 Credits.

Chaucer's poetry is timeless because he wrote so well that he always rewards reading (and the Middle English in which he wrote is very easy to master) and he is always worth reading because his poetry is at once so eye-opening and such a pleasure, a way of stretching our sense of the present by understanding (really understanding) the past. This class will pursue such understanding by paying particular attention to Chaucer's masterpieces, Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales. Our goal will be to learn to enjoy Chaucer's poetry by reading it carefully enough to take the full measure of what exactly it is about.