Best Chaucer Poems

Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain green;
for your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain.

By all truth, I tell you faithfully
that you are of life...

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Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has been passed.
I tell you truly, needless now to feign:
Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to...

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Morning At Work

Impaired by his tremors
And a troublesome cough,
He turned fur into felt
Before cooling things off.

He drooled once or twice
And grew cold in his bones,
But he shaped all the felt
Into all of the cones.


Noon

His 'venomous vipers'
Grew restless again
And woke as the toxins
Played games with his brain.

He began to see strange things
And quickly grew scared
When the...

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Morning In The Hair Salon

She would chat and then nod as she washed
And laugh as she dried and then curled
But behind all the smiles that were wide, fixed and false
She felt challenged and alone in the world.

She felt angry and always so tired
With debts adding up to her worry
She would rather stay home and dream...

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Morning

Having sighed a great sigh
He perused all his tools
From the mainsprings and tweezers
To the wheels and the jewels.

He removed the large case latch
From the pocket watch cover
To survey all the insides
As he would any other.

He wasn't familiar
With a watch of that kind
And confused why the workings
Ran two days behind.

He adjusted his loupe lens
And then gasped...

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Morning

The Innkeeper checked his watch once again 
Hoping the chef's feelings weren't hurt.
The last time they were, he arrived two hours late
And then left, serving just his dessert.

Sadly the chef, on this day of all days
Turned up filthy, flies open and drunk.
A black cat meowed as the chef stumbled in;
He was unkempt and cursing and...

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Chaucer and a Cup and Saucer

I just had been reading some Chaucer
When I picked up a cup from its saucer
Looked below and by chance saw Chaucer's name
Would this help me find much fortune and fame?

Now could it really be that Canterbury Tails
Have been hard to read when the light fails
And one was a tall tale...

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Your yen two wol slee me sodenly

Surrounded by warm sand
Black pools deep as the
Cold in your face

Your hand
With emollient grace
Will cut the wire

Carved then polished
Hair that twists as
In a Spring flood

Your two eyes will slay me suddenly...

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Escape
rondel/roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Since I’m escaped from Love and yet still fat,
I never plan to be in his prison lean;
Since I am free, I count it not a bean.

He may question me and counter this and that;
I care not: I will answer just as I mean.
Since I’m escaped from Love and...

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I walked the rails out of my town this day and saw many things.
Train tracks are different marking a way that is often rank.
Weeds are here seen to conceal trash and rubbish a wild wind brings.
Building has bare back to rails with its loading dock being blank,
old sad car stored in yard having house owned...

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Have you met my cat named Chaucer?
His naughtiness will steal your heart,
He has milk in his own saucer,
And as you'll see, he's very smart;

He plays around the garden green 
With his favourite woolly ball,
He knows how to keep himself clean,
He purrs and runs around the hall;

He curls up near the warm fireplace,
When he wants to...

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Welcome, Summer
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Now welcome, Summer, with your sun so soft,
since you’ve banished Winter with her icy weather
and driven away her long nights’ frosts.
Saint Valentine, in the heavens aloft,
the songbirds sing your praises together!

Now welcome, Summer, with your sun so soft,
since you’ve banished Winter with her icy weather.

We have good...

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These are modern English translations of love poems by Geoffrey Chaucer. These are poems of love, longing, passion and desire.

To Rosemounde: A Ballade
by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Madame, you’re a shrine to loveliness
And as world-encircling as trade’s duties.
For your eyes shine like glorious crystals
And your round cheeks like rubies.
Therefore you’re so merry and so...

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Geoffry Chaucer served as a page
first poet of ye olde English age
His Canterbury tales quite a feat
a work  never did complete...

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Three Roundels by Geoffrey Chaucer

I. Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain green;
for your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain.

By all truth, I tell you faithfully
that...

Continue reading...