Pre-print poets

This week I thought I'd set myself a trickier task and read my first medieval poem (not including a dabbling in Beowulf). As I have not read any Chaucer I thought it important that I should combine the two virginities into this one post.

I have to say the few I've read I will have to research a lot in order to understand them. Firstly because they are in Middle English and secondly because they are heavily contextual and I know little about the 14th Century.

Being a love poem, I managed to understand the gist of 'To Rosemounde', so have chosen that to focus on. I am afraid any comments I can make will be of a more simple nature than usual.

Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryne

As fer as cercled is the mapamounde,

For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,

And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.

Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocounde

That at a revel whan that I see you daunce,

It is an oynement unto my wounde,

Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,

Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;

Your semy voys that ye so smal out twyne

Maketh my thoght in joy and blis habounde.

So curtaysly I go with love bounde

That to myself I sey in my penaunce,

"Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,

Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce."

Nas neuer pyk walwed in galauntyne

As I in love am walwed and ywounde,

For which ful ofte I of myself devyne

That I am trew Tristam the secounde.

My love may not refreyde nor affounde,

I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.

Do what you lyst, I wyl your thral be founde,

Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

The refrain to me conveys the essence of the narrator's unrequited love. All the words bar the last are monosyllabic and therefore emphasise how simple love is, especially in this story as only one person is in love. So Chaucer mimics the one-sided nature of the love but also the plain acceptance of that person that the other does not love back. He does not feel anything bad towards the woman for her refusal of him, highlighted by the politeness of the address in the very first line.

He feels a 'wounde' but it is healed merely by seeing her 'mery'. The antithesis here emphasises how the two people are separate and will never be together but also highlights the strength of his love for her if she can heal what she has unconsciously caused.

In the first paragraph the 'daliaunce' is literal as he cannot court her. By repeating it, however, Chaucer uses metonymy where a dance represents courtship and eventually any relationship at all. He seems removed, letting her do 'what [she] lyst', although he claims his love will not turn cold (tautology in 'refeyde' and 'affounde' to emphasise this). He appears almost as a stalker, saying he will be 'founde' wherever she goes. So this love is a very strong one but also an accepting one as he does not appear to beg for love or scold her for her distance. At no point does the narrator claim to have any interaction with the girl, so perhaps he has fallen in love without actually knowing the woman. This is supported by his immediate concentration on her 'beaute' and how at no point does he give us her actual character and the things he loves about her.

I am glad I did this; I like this poem and am sure there are other Medieval poets with equally pleasing works.