I was terrified to start reading Chaucer this year, and I
have had to in two different classes, but the very first thing I noticed was
how pretty the language, which is the foundation of our own, actually sounded. When
hearing the beginning o f the prologue read out loud the poem, I was surprised
at how lyrical is sounded, and not because it’s a poem and rhymed, but because
of the sound of each word. It’s strange how foreign the opening sounded. There
was an immediate attraction to it much like listening to Spanish or French.
There is a quality to them that is captivating maybe because it is unfamiliar,
and this is intensified because this language is root to our own. “The General
Prologue” captures these sounds, and with poetry, almost sounds like a song.
For me hearing the poem out loud was a definite surprise, since it really
wasn’t what I was expecting.
I completely agree! There is something beautiful about Middle English that intrigues somebody at the very start of it. I like how you do not truly realize it is English at first. When looking at it and hearing it, it takes a while to understand that what is being read is the same language that we speak, think, and reason in... yet it is different. It is crazy to see how the language has changed, and it is crazy to think that this (although Chaucer does write poetically) is how people talked normally. It is all quite flabbergasting in the end.
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