assess the contribution of chaucer the English literature
Answers
Answer
print Print document PDF list Cite
Expert Answers
THANATASSA eNotes educator| CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Chaucer is sometimes referred to as the "father of English poetry." Part of the reason for this is that he was writing in Middle English and his work marks a major transition between the scanty remnants we have of Anglo-Saxon epic and early religious poetry and the development of a modern English poetic corpus.
Perhaps Chaucer's most important achievement was his role in the formation of the English vernacular as a tool for poetry. Most of the English poets in his period wrote in French or Latin for court or ecclesiastical audiences. In contrast, Chaucer wrote in English, which was accessible to a wider audience. His subject matter, too, while it included courtly romance, also often dealt with the ordinary lives of the bourgeois. In The Canterbury Tales, for example, among his pilgrims are many commoners, who are described in an unusually realistic manner.
Chaucer is also a key figure in the development and regularization of iambic pentameter as the standard meter for English poetry. He was especially important for using accentual syllabic verse that blended the strong stress tradition of Old English with French accentual meter.
I hope your help, ....
follow me guys