Pioneers of Middle English (11.00 pm - 2 am, 11th March, 2025)
In Middle English Period, there rose many literary Legends
Born in the 14th century
Starting from nothing, but zero
Yet his deeds forever kept him in our memory
He was the commoners' hero
Crowned as the father of prose
Acknowledged by the later generations
Yet went against that period's cross
Termed as a heretic
Tainted the bible of the catholic
Yeah, he's our John Wycliffe
Translating the holy book from Latin to English
Bringing it to the common people's reach
Why only keep it for the nobles
Let the common people also have a read
They were not that literate
Latin was away from their hand
Let the vernacular language shine
"Don't worry, I'll preserve every single line"
That was his conviction
Yet, the church granted him Excommunication
Hero of the 14th Century
Ended with an epic tragedy
His body dragged from the grave
The dead could not stay in a peaceful state
The remains burned to ashes
His beliefs turned into heresies
Wycliffe ended with tragedy
Yet he left behind his legacy
The Vernacular English
Picked up by the later Literary Community
One John went away, another John came,
But both were part of the same literary game.
While Wycliffe gave the Bible to the people,
Gower, with his Confessio, gave love and morals to all.
John Gower with his Confessio Amantis came to the scene
Showing the path of love like an angelic beam
Amantis' divine guidance,
Salvation of Genius's sins
Truly a didactic masterpiece
What we really need to glean
Finally comes Geoffrey Chaucer
The Father of English Literature
Legend follows his name
A great storyteller, known across the European land
Embodied with the vernacular flame
Riding on the common people's train
He wrote one masterpiece after another
Starting a great literary campaign
He didn't choose Latin
Didn't choose French
Far from the Elites
He walked along with John Wycliffe
The very reason he was distinguished
Yeah, he wrote in Vernacular English
Writing in the common peoples' tongue
He managed to convey what was going on
The life of that time people
Be they elite or the common
He wrote about everyone
Without any division
A knightly tale
A merchant's sail
A miller's dream
A friar's sins
A Roman Lady's tribulation
The Royalty's Abolition
He wrote 24 such stories
Collected in the Canterberry Tale
A true literary marvel
Besides the above, there's Troilus and Criseyde
Another major literary contribution
While the former might be the magnum opus
The later couldn't be looked down on
Telling a tragic story of love and loss
United through the half
Later becoming a betrayer
Portraying love and hate to the heroin
A theme based on the trojan warfare
There are more to Chaucer then what one could list
There aren't enough spaces to write in this poetic piece
Let's end it for today
Time is running still
Written for exam preparation
Based on Literary history
I wanted to write more
Yet my body couldn't keep on
It's midnight 2 am
Exam on 10: 30
Wake up in 7,
For that to really be
A healthy sleep is a given
See you all later
Maybe I'll write more
Yet by that time
This note would be lost
For, here
The facts matter the most