Chaucer on April

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote

The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,

And smale fowles maken melodye

That slepen al the night with open ye

(So priketh hem nature in hir corages):

Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmers for to seken straunge strondes,

To ferne halwes couthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende

The holy blisful martir for to seke

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

First 18 lines

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340(?)–1400)