Geoffrey Chaucer-The Father of English Poetry

Memorable Points on Chaucer

  • Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the feign of Edward III, lived through that of Richard II, and died the year after Henry IV took over the throne.
  • He lived between 1340 and 1400.
  • He was a courtier, traveler, ambassador and literary figure.
  • William Langland was his closest contemporary.
  • At the age of seventeen, he received a court appointment as page (a serving boy) to the wife of the Duke of Clarence who was Edward III’s third son.
  • He remained on Diplomatic Missions to Italy where he came across Petrarch and Boccaccio.
  • On the accession of John Gaunt’s son, Henry IV, he was granted a royal pension.
  • He was the first non-royalist to be buried in Westminster Abbey which afterwards came to be known as the Poets’ corner.
  • John Dryden called him ‘the Father of English Poetry.’
  • Matthew Arnold called him ‘the earliest of the great moderns.’
  • G.K. Chesterton describes: If Chaucer is the Father of English Poetry, he is the Grandfather of the English Novel.
  • Chaucer was highly influenced by the Italian Writers – Virgil, Dante, Ovid, Petrarch, Boccaccio.

Important Links:

Critical Analysis of The Canterbury Tales
Critical Analysis of The Canterbury Tales in Hindi