Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
iago giacomo jacques james diego tiago
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wow…i can still read chaucer in old english…i had a chaucer professor that used to make us read aloud every week…sometimes i still pick up the canterbury tales to see if i can do it, and yep the pronuciation is still there…
(its a neat party trick…)
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yeah, this all came screaming back to me too from 11th grade. english teacher decided it’d be fun if we all learned a few verses in the sing-songy cadences they used to tell the stories, and we each had to recite the opening and one other section in order to pass the class that quarter.
tonight i shall be e.e. corixidae in honour of this memory.
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