Love

To Rosemounde

by Geoffrey Chaucer c. 1343–1400

From Short Poems

Love

Madame, ye ben of al beautè shryne
As fer as cercled is the mappemounde;
For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
Therwith ye ben so mery and so iocounde,
That at a revel whan that I see you daunce,
It is an oynement unto my wounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;
Your seemly voys that ye so smal out-twyne
Maketh my thoght in Ioye and blis habounde.
So curteisly I go, with lovë bounde,
That to my-self I sey, in my penaunce,
Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne
As I in love am walwed and y-wounde;
For which ful ofte I of my-self divyne
That I am trewe Tristan the secounde.
My love may not refreyd be nor afounde;
I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
Do what you list, I wil your thral be founde,
Thoghe ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

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A playful balade of courtly flattery, found in a single manuscript (Bodleian, Rawlinson Poetic 163), where the scribe has added the trailer ‘Tregentil Chaucer’. Its comic image — ‘Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne / As I in love am walwed and y-wounde’ — likens the lover to a pike steeped in sauce. Text from W. W. Skeat’s Oxford edition (1899).

MLA

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “To Rosemounde.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/chaucer/10/.

Chicago

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “To Rosemounde.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/chaucer/10/.

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