Celestial Coalescence

2030 Words5 Pages

Fourteenth century England drew witness to many disruptions in time. The 100 Years War, Peasants Revolt, and Black Death are among the many tumultuous events that provide the context for some of the greatest literary masterpieces ever composed. Geoffrey Chaucer and the Pearl Poet are amid the most venerated poets on record. Is it purely chance, or did this era cultivate finely tuned writing ability through its refined culture? Just as we will never know the name of the Pearl Poet, we can only infer the social and educational mores of the fourteenth century through the caliber of writers it produced. The era uniformly affects the poem content of Chaucer and the Pearl Poet, but the values can be argued by one simple, differing factor. While Chaucer seemed to write to the popularity of his work, the Pearl Poet chose to not inscribe his name on his manuscripts. As Geoffrey Chaucer indefinitely marks his pages in history, the Pearl Poet, mysteriously, saves his literary breath for after he's literally taken his last. With no name and little evidence of its origination, the producer of the poems, Pearl, Purity, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will most likely remain anonymous, or commonly known as the "Pearl Poet," for the remainder of history. Whether his work was an offering to God, or whether he chose to leave the poems nameless because of the ill repute of English-written manuscripts, the Pearl Poet's work still ranks him with Chaucer and other literary geniuses. Akin to they're repute, their literary practices are very much alike. Chaucer and the Pearl Poet share in the same literary practices through their incorporation of the dream narrative, satire of nobility, Boethius, and the Golden Section.

Chauc...

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...wth, including their objective view of humanity through social satire, the familiarity of Boethius, and the incorporation of the Golden Section. Though there is no historical record of formal schooling, Chaucer and the Pearl Poet substantiate their astuteness with intimate references to other written works, mathematics, and seemingly faultless poetry. The arrangement of these elements into their work shows a higher understanding of the power of language. Geoffrey Chaucer and the Pearl Poet exemplify this understanding in their poetry to be more than just an arrangement of words. Their passion extends further than their support of the Boethian philosophy, or the satire of those who violate the morals identified in philosophy, but in devising a tribute to these ideas with their inclusion into the mathematically arranged divine proportion; celestial coalescence.

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