Sonnet and Canterbury Tales

Even after all these years there comes the dream

Of lovelier life than this in some new earth,

In the full summer of that unearthly gleam

Which lights the spirit when the brain gives birth,

Of a perfected I, in happy hours,

Treading above the sea that trembles there,

A path through thickets of immortal flowers

That only grow where sorrows never were.

And, at a turn, of coming face to face

With Beauty's self, that Beauty I have sought

In women's hearts, in friends, in many a place,

In barren hours passed at grips with thought,

Beauty of woman, comrade, earth and sea,

Incarnate thought come face to face with me.

Paraphrase:
Even though life has been great so far, there is still the idea of a perfect, supernatural life somewhere else, beyond us
This place is magical and encourages thinking and high spirits
The narrator is happy there, almost on a high
It is an eternally beautiful place where there are no sorrows or worries
It is the only place to find the beauty that we seek every day
The narrator encounters this beauty head on in this magical place


Interesting fact about Chaucer
I specifically found number 4 interesting because I immediately thought about the first tale of the book, The Knight's Tale, and how it had to do with two men in jail. Maybe his time spent as a POW had some influence over this story


Death's role in The Pardoner's Tale
This is a good explanation of why not only Chaucer, but many authors and poets use Death as a major character or subject of their writing. It does specifically elaborate and focus on Chaucer's use, but helpful and insightful overall.




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