Exerts from my "Canterbury Tale," and Vision.
"Hark now prim company, hearken to this tale
For not a word is spoke in vain but well
For you to take to heart what is spoke. Lo!
The tale begins!"
"At noon the poet sits in his parlor
Looking over the infested harbor,
Bustling with the lives of men so low,
That to converse one must honor forgo.
Fostering contempt—his paint and platter—
[...]
"Lone the poet calling Melpomene,
Teary eyed, besought by Nyx, and finding
To lust with pen easier than pining
With the times in truth and sobriety."
“'Play on! My heart does not afford me rest,
With luck your melodies shall sooth distress.'
But fore the harp was crooned or coyly pressed
There sank a shadow by pass of Erebus"
[...]
"Be gone thou my words, my silken-sheets,
Thou art sin stained garments of verse—a hearse
For my love past, a precession that speaks
Of past defeats and love ill-spent, accursed."
[...]
"Thou art an ardent declaration, fain
Of spite’s ill-gains and stains"
[...]
"My ivory tower of verse looming high
That beckoned the pagan hearts, 'Hither—nigh!'Shall topple and tumble to ruin"
(For Chaucer's Canterbury Tales our class was given the option: write a six page tale or a reflection essay. Over break I attempted a Christian tale with pagan elements called "Thaetus." This was influenced by the Knights tale, who, being Christian and of the highest social rank, gives a tale that has many pagan characters. I had hoped to gain insight through this process into why he does this. The Story was as follows: Thaetus is a poet who is quite immoderate with his emotions and it is this unbridled passion that produces the conflict in the story. The tale was to show a few elements of emotions, (1) their potentially deceptive nature, (2) irrational nature, and then finally (3) the beautiful fruit and necessity of a heart focused on God in living a godly life. Now Thaetus, for the sake of art and pleasure, indulges in every emotional sensation that comes his way, being a man who habitually sulks in sorrow, and to gluts in laughter (however temporal), and so on and so forth. At the heart of the story I wanted to set Matthew 5:38-42 and Proverbs 4:23. The way in which I intended to achieve this, was to created conflict--namely anger: Thaetus is severely wronged and responds in anger, an anger that many would consider righteous, but as the wind carries the chaff, so is he carried by these passion. Most of the message in short is: Being right does not purify a wrong attitude or behavior. It is more dangerous for a Christian (or more universally, a man in general) when he is right in a conflict than when he is wrong, because he is more likely to become bitter, more reluctant to let go of an offense and forgive, and likely to be deeply hostel when someone has cheated him or taken advantage of him. A Christian is more likely to sin by his reactions than his actions--perhaps this is one reason why we are to to turn the other cheek--for what the devil can do with our anger. To add more elements to the story I added a character named Tactus, a daemon who steals/collects faces. At Thaetus' severely uncouth behavior Tactus is given permission--nay, orders (which he joyfully exploits) to seize the poet's face (that is, literally rip it off...I thought it appropriate to the image in my head to have him perform such a task for his master). So when Tactus, the face stealing daemon, comes to Thaetus (who is in the very act of his lewd, unsightly poetry, fostering contempt) he is terrified, disoriented, and sick as he has his crime and punishment reported to him. Due to certain rules that Tactus must work by, Thaetus is given time to consider his ways. During this time of deliberation he must offer a heartfelt repentance, but he finds that he is unable to change his own heart. He must "safeguard his heart," but how? Such is his dilemma. He then engages in conversation with various past poets--that is, the faces of past poets that Tactus has in his sack, but he finds them to be of little to no help, seeing that they all failed to find the answer to their pressing dilemma. Although, they do offer their attempts as examples and demonstrate the ways in which one cannot succeed in change his heart. In the end all is well and quelled. I am sure I am leaving more out, but if you are at all curious or have any advice or questions, I would love to hear them. God Bless.)
