Textual Lineage - 3

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

The Canterbury Tales were influencial to me in so many ways. It was the first time that I realized that in order to understand what is being talked about in the tales, one must understand that time that the story is being written. This means that in order to see past what is written on the paper, the reader must know what happened during that time in history. After reading this tales and having a college professor explain them to me, I began to read literature in new way. I also found myself, a history buff, seeing how much I really liked literature and the field of English.

www.canterburytales.org/  - Online full text version