The Pearl Poet's Scarlet Pen

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the chain drug that begun my literary expanding. I didn't enjoy reading in high school (most of our readings were boring and unhelpful in  helping the student appreciate fine arts), but my senior year we were asked to read this story. After reading this for the first time, it wasn't the story that had me interested, nor was it the intuitive writing style, but it was the simple imagery. Simple excerpts that would describe the characters were just astonishing. In describing the Green Knight, the "Pearl Poet" uses the most astonishing description,

 "And in guise all of green, the gear and the man: A coat cut close, that clung to his sides, And a mantle to match, made with a lining of furs cut and fitted-the fabric was noble (151-154)."

After reading the work I begged my English professor to lead me to other writings such as this. This work is incredibly sentimental to me and has served as one of the first works I ever became interested in. However, there were so many other uses of imagery that I believe Chaucer had done exceptionally well. For example, one of the hardest things to describe in a narrative work is loneliness. Chaucer uses harsh and piercing language to describe Gawain's isolation, "Now he rides in his array through the realm of Logres, Sir Gawainn, God knows, though it gave him small joy! All alone must he lodge through many a long night where the food that he fancied was far from his plate... Many a cliff must he climb in country wild; Far off from all his friends, forlorn must he ride (691-694,713-714)." Loneliness is a hard element to connect with the reader, but Chaucer's descriptive imagery puts them together easily.  There are many others examples, and I know that this was not the main focus during the class, but this is what speaks to me the most from Chaucer. Chaucer had various ideas and opinions concerning religion and political hierarchy, but I think he wrote this work simply to entertain, and that he did.

P.S. I commented on Mallory Searcy's "Machiavelli..."

Scary stuff!