John Gower's Poetic: The Search for a New ArionJohn Gower's Poetic is a new study of Gower's complete poetry. Considered are Vox Clamantis, Mirour de l'Omme, Traitié pour les Amantz marietz, Cinkante Balades, Confessio Amantis, and `To King Henry IV, In Praise of Peace'. In fiveintegrative chapters, Yeger demonstrates that Gower - far from being the lugubrious moralist and journeyman craftsman as which he is often portrayed -was in fact a writer of broad learning and ambition, whose work was consistently shaped bya poetic theory of profound originality. To demonstrate this, John Gower's Poetic re-examines Gower's work from the basic levels of orthography, grammar, vocabulary, and metrics, to his enduring macrocosmic themes; in the process, Yeager shows that Gower saw himself as an `auctor', or `poete', in the manner of Dante, Machaut, Froissart, and Deschamps. The book concludes with an extensive, fresh reading of Gower's greatest poem, the Confessio Amantis. Professor R. F. Yeager teaches in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, University of West Florida, Pensacola. |
Contents
Stylistics | 1 |
Gowers Lines | 45 |
Transformations | 114 |
Exceptions Prove the Rule | 158 |
Arions Final Song | 230 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alboin Amans Amans's Amans/Gower amorous Apollonius appears argument Arion audience Book VII borrowed C. S. Lewis Canterbury Tales cento Cinkante Ballades Confessio Amantis confession context courtly love Dante Dante's daughter Deschamps discussion English example exemplum fictive Fisher Florent forto French Gawain Genius Gower's Confessio Amantis Gower's poetic Greek Guillaume de Machaut hath hire human incest Jason Jean de Meun John Gower kind king Labor language Latin lines Literature London lover lust lyric Macaulay Macaulay's Machaut manuscripts marriage Medea medieval metrical Middle Ages Middle English Mirour de l'Omme moral narrative Nature noght Ovid passage poem poet poetry Prologue quotation readers rhyme rime riche Roman Rosamund schal sche scholde seems sense sequence Speculum story Studies tale Tereus Thaise Ther thou tradition Traitié Trésor Troilus Venus Venus's verse VIII voice Voir-Dit Vox Clamantis Whan words writing þat