April Blossoms


Monday May 1, 2017


When in April the sweet rains fall The drought of March gone through the root To generate therein and create the flower The tender shoots and buds and the young sun. And little birds make melody That sleep through all the night with open eye. Then people long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers long to seek strange strands, To far shrines well known in sundry lands. And especially from every shire’s end Of England they to Canterbury went. The holy blessed martyr there to seek Who helped them when they were sick. (Prologue of The Canterbury Tales) April is frequently the month of pilgrimage for the Christian world to commemorate and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Known as “Holy Week” to some, here in the UK we call it the Easter holiday. In England most people may no longer go on Christian pilgrimages in April as they had done before, but history shows they did it too some time ago when the country was still a Catholic nation before the Reformation. Above is the prologue of the most famous of all English poems, “The Canterbury Tales”. This poem is famous because it drew a picture what England was like during the reign of Richard II. The prologue describes the atmospheric conditions of England in April. The poem was about a medieval misadventure of pilgrims from Southwark to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. It was written by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), the father of English poetry during Medieval England. In the past, the nobles spoke French, the church and law used Latin. English was the language of “commoners”. Chaucer’s literature made English prominent and became the more commonly used language relative to French and Latin. It happened during the period...... Read more on Full Issue!



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