The Parlament of Foules


Book Description




The Parliament of Birds


Book Description

In this collection of poems, among his very best, Chaucer showcases his lyrical skills to perfection. Verging from tragic to comic, the overriding theme of the poetry is love, in its many guises. Chaucer tells of his passion for reading, which allows him to eavesdrop on a "parliament of birds" on St Valentine's Day; he tells how he, as an inveterate reader, forsakes his books on the first of May to wander into the fields; he complains of being short of money; and he complains to his scribe for copying his verses badly. All in all, in the course of the poetry he reveals a lot about himself, and does so throughout in an engaging and civilized manner.




Bird Parliament


Book Description




The Conference of the Birds


Book Description




Birds in Medieval English Poetry


Book Description

First full-length study of birds and their metamorphoses as treated in a wide range of medieval poetry, from the Anglo-Saxons to Chaucer and Gower.




Nature Speaks


Book Description

Nature Speaks recovers the common ground shared between physics—what used to be known as "natural philosophy"—and fiction-writing as ways of representing the natural world. In doing so, it traces how nature gained an authoritative voice in the late medieval period only to lose it at the outset of modernity.




Love Visions


Book Description

Spanning Chaucer's working life, these four poems build on the medieval convention of 'love visions' - poems inspired by dreams, woven into rich allegories about the rituals and emotions of courtly love. In The Book of the Duchess, the most traditional of the four, the dreamer meets a widower who has loved and lost the perfect lady, and The House of Fame describes a dream journey in which the poet meets with classical divinities. Witty, lively and playful, The Parliament of Birds details an encounter with the birds of the world in the Garden of Nature as they seek to meet their mates, while The Legend of Good Women sees Chaucer being censured by the God of Love, and seeking to make amends, for writing poems that depict unfaithful women. Together, the four create a marvellously witty, lively and humane self-portrait of the poet.




Two Early Renaissance Bird Poems


Book Description

This volume presents annotated texts of two poems that have not appeared in a previous critical edition. They are specimens of noncourtly minor poetry; the bird convention which links them is formulaic rather than experimental, their mode is predictable, their outlook decidedly conventional. A publication of the Renaissance English Text Society.




A Filth of Starlings


Book Description

Birds.




A Parliament of Owls


Book Description

A unique collection of stunning photographs and detailed portraits of over fifty of the most striking owl species around the world. Recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.