Long Chaucer Poems

Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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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...

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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...

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Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



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

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot...

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Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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Sweet Rose of Virtue
by William Dunbar (c. 1460-1530)
loose translation/modernization/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

after William Dunbar

Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,
delightful lily of youthful wantonness,
richest in bounty and in beauty clear
and in every virtue that...

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Unquotable quotes: Poets, Poetasters and Platos – XXXVI

     For James McAuley – in remembrance of a memorable week in Cardiff 1965 

The greatest poet ever is NOT Homer, Lao Tse, Ovid,...

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My father died prematurely while away on 
a business trip from a rogue blood clot to the heart  
I never doubted he loved me, would have liked me, 
(not the same thing), adult to...

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Lament for the Makaris ("Lament for the Makers/Poets")
by William Dunbar [c. 1460-1530]
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
i who enjoyed good health and gladness
am overwhelmed now by life’s terrible sickness
and enfeebled with infirmity ...
how the...

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Transl. of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private - 4 with a Clive Bush comment on Mottram's poetry 

Excerpt from an article, “From space to caves in the heart recreating the collective world in Eric Mottram’s...

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It was a grey day more or less on planet earth,
But earth’s robots hardly noticed at all
Robot logic so tuned into ones and zeros,
On and off, grey matter is of little interest
Day and night, sunrise...

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Not that I pity myself
While holding a gun on my temple with this gentle discipline,
My identity is clear but my behaviour is doubtful
To the extent of brutish masculinity – defined as stubbornness.
Oh Majesty! of all...

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Dearest Poets of All Ages,
Welcome to the unique magic of poetry!
I may disqualify myself by saying I don't like using the term modern as it usually implies that we are smarter, more advanced, better than...

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If two heads are better than one
How much better is three.
For the time has come 
When Translators cannot agree.

Nigel wrote the words in Latin script
And much time has passed 
With many Learned Ones pen’s dipt
In...

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The Bucket List

Imagine if you will, a scene unlike any other,
Sipping Espresso daybreak, foothills of snow that smother.
Pavement Café in Zermatt, first patron of the morn’
Eyes glazed in wonder, the magnificence of Matterhorn.

Imagine if you...

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 Warning, this poem is dark. It is inspired by the  Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Gather around and hear of the strange day,
When three total strangers met on that plane.
Three unlikely females eager to...

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Morning

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...

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A moment of your time TS Eliot
as I shall praise you with glory.
You are a genius,
an American now an English Gentleman
went to Harvard,
went to London,
Married the first girl you met,
disgraced your family in Saint Louie!
Became...

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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...

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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...

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I thought it was bad enough
when you took your people’s guns,
leaving them unable to defend
themselves or anyone,
making them incapable of
resisting evil’s sway,
leaving them adrift and helpless,
it is the tyrant’s way.
But now I see it’s even...

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Robin Hood, man in tights
Julius Caesar, might makes right
Alexander, called "the Great"
Sitting Bull, righteous hate
Robert the Bruce, Attila the Hun
Charlemagne, Napoleon

Hear the call of the alpha male!
Warriors leave a bloody trail.

George Washington, man on the...

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Brexit Is Icumenn In, May's gone cuckoo!

No shame is poverty, if the heart by gay !
As Chaucer's Wife of Bath was wont to say;
Is this the tale that's told by May?
For Theresa's plan is surely on...

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"Pluto’s Dark Abode" 

they say you can feel her 
walking through you 
it only happens when 
the frost and mist is about 
where hidden wild things 
watch but make 
themselves heard
in the half light 
they...

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