A Few of Geoffrey Chaucer's Firsts and Their Influence by Simon Levien

Authors one in the same?

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories that achieved many firsts in the English-speaking world, in spite of French and Latin, the lingua francas in England at the time. He was essentially the Shakespeare of the Middle Ages (even sporting some of the same bathroom humor, but in much more excess). Centuries before the Bard would pen his famous poetry and plays of countless firsts, the early Chaucer showed the world to unique characters with laughter, tragedy, and vulgarity in peculiar fashion. His 17,000 line tale (or rather, tale of tales) would serve as an influence for generations of writers, even Shakespeare himself.

Most notably is Chaucer's writing style. The Canterbury Tales incorporates both rhymes and prose to contrast certain ideas. As for the poetic parts, he uses a meter consistently where each line is decasyllable, having ten syllables, and often using a caesura (in our text, denoted by commas), dividing most lines in two. Chaucer would use two rhyming styles: riding rhyme and rhyme royal, of which he pioneered the latter. Riding rhyme is the style Chaucer more frequently used and is exemplified best by the two tales we read in class. The only way I can describe its rhythm is that it tries to emulate "riding" like on a horse, but without the gallops over a stanza (I don't really know how else to put it in words). Riding rhyme would serve to be one of the first examples of heroic verse in Middle English similar how Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia set the standard for early Cuneiform writings (or even embodies the literary triumphs of the Middle English and Sanskrit respectively). On the other hand, rhyme royal is more interesting; it's scheme is ababbcc. Rhyme royal syncs well with Chaucer's meter, which is considered to be a progenitor to iambic pentameter--made famous by Shakespearean sonnets.

As for Chaucer himself, he demonstrates himself to be the most skilled of writers. He outlined and detailed the backgrounds, quirks, and personalities of twenty-four unique travelers--or better simply put as individuals. In his time, the association between pilgrims and storytelling was well-known. However, among all of his other firsts, Chaucer was the first to write such a diverse cast of pilgrims. Retreats were thought to always be homogeneous pilgrim convoys, with similar backgrounds and the same goal. But, Chaucer is able to intertwine many one-of-a-kind persons not on the basis of race, but rather on occupation, social standing, and, their good-evil bends, as we discussed in class.

Through his remarkable abilities to illustrate diverse characters and revolutionize English poetic devices, Chaucer becomes one of the most ambitious English writers of all-time, let alone his dominance of Middle English literature. Some of his other feats include: providing a standard for the usage of the story within a story literary device (similar to Frankenstein, actually), and of course, penning what is considered to be the first English modern novel.

Best Friends and Blessings by: Bailey Kellenberger

Finding a best friend that you can honestly count on for anything and everything is often close to, if not, impossible. It is rare to meet someone and have them stay in your life for your remaining time on Earth. Families move, friends go off to college, and even with today’s technology, remembering to keep in touch with one another is most definitely hard. However, there is a blessing in life that it most often overlooked… siblings. Your brothers or sisters are “build in best friends”. You get to see them every day. You’ve grown with them and know them like the back of your own hand. They know and understand almost everything you are going through because chances are they are going through it too; after all, you do live under the same roof. Your siblings are able to truly love you unconditionally. No matter how much you fight or steal each other clothes, at the end of the day, you know that you can go to them for anything and they will be more than happy to listen. From personal experience, my sisters are the ultimate best friends. Truly, I feel bad for anyone that doesn’t have sisters like mine. My sisters and I fight like WWE fighters. We will pull hair, punch deep, and kick fast however that never stops us from protecting, loving, and caring for one another. The first person I go to for any advice is my older sister. There is this trust that runs deep between her and myself. She knows the ins and outs of high school and relationships and she never holds back the reality of any situation. She will leap to my aid if anyone is giving me a difficult time and I’ve never met anyone that can win a face down with her. She is my forever best friend. I take her for granted. I forget about the time when she cut my hair (without my mother's knowledge) and I forget the about the time she first did my makeup. I forget that as children we were inseparable as we told secrets behind the playhouse slide and snuck into each other's room to play with our Bratz’ dolls until sunrise. I allow myself to forget my childhood. I feel as though as I get older I must always keep this in mind. Often, I let words slip out of my mouth such as “I hate you” or “never speak to me again”.  Although I don’t mean any real harm, I forget that words cannot be undone.  I forget to treat my siblings as the blessings they are, and I forget that they deserve to be told how much they mean to me. So, count your blessings and remember to never forget. 

Why Learning about Greek Mythology is Important by Emma Bova

Whether you're learning, or just going about every day life, Greek culture always seems to pop up everywhere we look. A lot of our English culture is based upon the ways of the ancient Greeks and Greek mythology, and some people may ask "why? They're just some silly myths." Greek myths are epic tales about Gods and Goddesses. They are meant to reveal a lesson, moral, or even warning in the end. They often reflect on humanity in the form of a parable. Rarely do they have a happy ending, and they are not exactly written for entertainment. They are written for a higher more important purpose, and are used to pass down lessons without being boring.

          Greeks myths were often told to people to help them realize what is right versus what is wrong. They are meant to help people control or influence their decisions. They are meant to serve as a warning and to inspire the reader not to make the same mistake as of the character in the myth. They may not be the most realistic, but they still portray a message and reflect on human life; then and now. The irony is, people often still choose the wrong thing to do and have to learn their lesson the hard way.

         By learning Greek mythology, one is not only learning about the culture of another country, but they can also apply this information and compare and contrast it to the cultural ideas of their own country. After all, a lot of our language and culture is based off of the Greeks. For example, government, art, many worldly languages, and ways of every day life. From a behavioral standpoint, it is interesting because even thought these myths were written thousands and thousands of years ago, by writers like Sophocles and Euripides, they still are an accurate representation of how humans act in the present day, and they captured humanity very well to the point where an abundance of stories are still relevant today.