An exercise in iambic pentameter!
My students have to mimic Chaucer’s rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter to create a prologue for a new character of their creation as their unit project this term. Of course, they must have a model! Thus, I composed the following:
The Minstrel's Prologue
A minstrel had they in that company
To play and help them all to make merry.
A lass she was, diminutive and fair;
She had a crown of dark brown curly hair
And on her head she wore a light green hood -
Upon her back an instrument of wood.
From Bath she came, a sailor’s daughter she,
And of her youth she spoke must humbly:
For poor they were, but music gave them life
And helped them weather all their worldly strife.
There’s some that say she’s played before the king
And others for the queen they say she’d sing.
Her dulcet tones were known both far and wide
For great her talent was; so too her stride!
A kindly wench, beloved by all she meets
And ready with a smile for all she greets.
Though low her birth, not one was she to grieve:
They say her name was lovely Genevieve.
The Minstrel's Prologue
A minstrel had they in that company
To play and help them all to make merry.
A lass she was, diminutive and fair;
She had a crown of dark brown curly hair
And on her head she wore a light green hood -
Upon her back an instrument of wood.
From Bath she came, a sailor’s daughter she,
And of her youth she spoke must humbly:
For poor they were, but music gave them life
And helped them weather all their worldly strife.
There’s some that say she’s played before the king
And others for the queen they say she’d sing.
Her dulcet tones were known both far and wide
For great her talent was; so too her stride!
A kindly wench, beloved by all she meets
And ready with a smile for all she greets.
Though low her birth, not one was she to grieve:
They say her name was lovely Genevieve.