To Rosamond Literary Elements

The speaker is a young man attempting to woo Rosamond, the subject of the poem. He is dramatic and caught up in his own overwhelming feelings.

Eight-line stanzas in ABAB CDCE rhyme scheme. Chaucer borrowed this form from French poetry.

Metaphor: The speaker describes Rosamond as a shrine, or the elaborately decorated tomb of a medieval saint (line 1)
Simile: The speaker compares the expansiveness of Rosamond's beauty to the vast ocean that encircled the land in medieval world maps. He suggests that just as that ocean contains the whole world, so his beloved contains all the beauty in the world (line 2)
Simile: The speaker compares Rosamond's shine to a shining crystal. He might be describing her shining eyes, her sparkling dress, or an internal brightness of soul or personality (line 3)
Simile: The speaker compares Rosamond's cheeks to round rubies, emphasizing their blush and youthful fullness (line 4)
Metaphor: The speaker compares his confession of love to a penance, or the Catholic practice of confessing sins to a priest (line 14)
Simile: The speaker compares his immersion in love to a fish being cooked in sauce. The humble image suggests Chaucer's satirical attitude towards love (line 17)

Alliteration: /b/ in line 1, been and beauty
Alliteration: /r/ in line 4, ruby and round
Alliteration: /d/ in line 8, 16, 24, do and dalliance
Alliteration: /t/ in line 9, tears and tyne
Alliteration: /w/ in line 18, wallowed and wound

Situational irony: the only thing that can sooth the pain of unrequited love is contact with the beloved, who is the source of the speaker's agony.

Love poetry

The court

Satirical

The speaker is the protagonist. Rosamond, who rejects him, is the antagonist.

At first, the major conflict seems to be between the speaker's desire for Rosamond and her lack of interest in him. However, as the poem procedes it becomes clear that her feelings don't really affect the speaker, who is entirely caught up in his own emotions. In this sense, the real conflict is between the pain of love, which drives the speaker away from Rosamond, and the soothing joy he derives from being around her, which pushes him back into her orbit.

The climax of the poem is the last two lines, which reveal that the speaker will find love just as pleasurable regardless of how Rosamond feels.

N/A

Chaucer's comparison of being in love to a fish cooked in sauce undercuts the drama of the earlier stanzas by instead understating the seriousness of love.

In line 20, Chaucer alludes to the story of Tristan and Isolde. Tristan is an English knight, and Isolde an Irish princess. Tristan is sent to deliver her as a bride to his wealthier and more powerful uncle, but on the way falls in love with her instead, and the two embark on a doomed romance. The speaker of "To Rosamond" sees himself as a similarly tragic romantic hero. The allusion also suggests that his love for Rosamond may be prevented by a difference in rank or a similar impossibility of circumstance.

N/A

N/A

The speaker speaks hyperbolically when he calls the pain of unrequited love a physical wound.

N/A