Geoffrey Chaucer was a prolific and profoundly influential writer. However, the other poems of this "father" of English-language poetry do not often get the same degree of attention as his seminal, widely-studied book The Canterbury Tales.
In this lesson plan, several of Chaucer's other poems – including a short ballad, two allegorical dream poems, and a segment of the epic tragedy "Troilus and Criseyde" – are presented alongside The Canterbury Tales, and situated firmly in the mediæval context from which they arose. By taking this broader view of Chaucer and his works, students have an opportunity to gain a better, more in-depth understanding of the character of mediæval literature and...
