Chaucer explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Role of the Poet and Writer

  Thoreau laments that the bard has lost his sacred, heroic office and become a mere tradesman; Chaucer is celebrated as a founder of the literary class who gave permanence to the English language.

• Nature and Simplicity

  Chaucer's poetry is described as natural, cheerful, and close to the earth, like the plough in the furrow, embodying a childlike sincerity and the innocence of spring.

• Heroism and Moral Courage

  Thoreau contrasts the ancient bardic heroism with Chaucer's domestic, unheroic verse; Chaucer lacks the heroic sentiment of Raleigh or the soaring genius of Milton.

Characters to notice

• Chaucer

  Praised as the father of English poetry, fresh and modern, with a natural and cheerful muse; compared to Homer and Shakespeare.

• Ossian

  Contrasted with Chaucer; his poetry is stern, desolate, and misty, representing an older, heroic bardic tradition.

• Shakespeare

  Mentioned alongside Chaucer and Milton; noted for being philosophical and for embodying multiple characters like Hamlet and Falstaff.

• Milton

  Referenced as a poet whose genius soars, in contrast to Chaucer's genial and familiar style.

• Homer

  Compared to Chaucer; both share innocence and serenity of youth, and the Iliad is described as morning reading.

• Dante

  Mentioned as a contemporary influence whose name exerted a living presence; Chaucer rendered a similar service to English as Dante did to Italian.

• Sir Walter Raleigh

  Cited as an example of heroic sentiment, which Chaucer's poetry lacks.

• Wordsworth

  Compared to Chaucer for preferring homely Saxon tongue; both are simple in their language choices.

Key passages

• “What a contrast between the stern and desolate poetry of Ossian, and that of Chaucer, and even of Shakespeare and Milton, much more of Dryden, and Pope, and Gray.”

  Thoreau highlights the stark difference between the harsh, bleak verse of Ossian and the more refined, civilized poetry of Chaucer and later English poets.

  Sets up the central contrast of the chapter between ancient bardic and modern domestic poetry.

• “The poet has come within doors, and exchanged the forest and crag for the fireside, the hut of the Gael, and Stonehenge with its circles of stones, for the house of the Englishman.”

  Poetry has moved from wild, outdoor settings to the comfort of the home, symbolizing a shift from heroic to domestic themes.

  Illustrates the decline of the bardic tradition into a more settled, civilized art.

• “Chaucer’s is the first name after that misty weather in which Ossian lived, which can detain us long.”

  Chaucer is the first major English poet after the obscure, ancient period of Ossian.

  Positions Chaucer as the dawn of English poetry after a long silence.

• “He is so natural and cheerful, compared with later poets, that we might almost regard him as a personification of spring.”

  Chaucer's verse feels fresh and joyful, like the season of spring, in contrast to more somber later poets.

  Emphasizes Chaucer's youthful, life-affirming quality.

• “He was as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy.”

  Like Wordsworth and Dante, Chaucer chose to write in the common language of the people, helping to elevate English to a literary language.

  Highlights Chaucer's role in establishing English as a literary medium.

• “We admire Chaucer for his sturdy English wit. The easy height he speaks from in his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, as if he were equal to any of the company there assembled, is as good as any particular excellence in it.”

  Chaucer's confident, egalitarian tone in the Canterbury Tales Prologue is itself a mark of his genius.

  Praises Chaucer's social ease and narrative authority.