{"id":979,"date":"2009-04-13T23:25:02","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T06:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=979"},"modified":"2009-04-15T00:16:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T07:16:18","slug":"poem-13-the-complaint-of-chaucer-to-his-purse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/13\/poem-13-the-complaint-of-chaucer-to-his-purse\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem 13: “The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a running list of poems to include this month, but none of them were singing to me. There’s a bit too much stress in my world right now to feel very poetic. That is until I Googled around a bit and remembered "The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse<\/a>."<\/p>\n

What a perfect poem for a day when I’m feeling all my many bills and my very empty checking account.<\/p>\n

The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse<\/strong>
\nA Supplication to King Henry<\/em>
\n 
\nTo yow, my purs, and to non othir wyght
\nComplayne I, for ye ben my lady dere!
\nI am so sory, now that ye been lyght;
\nFor certes, but yf ye make me hevy chere,
\nMe were as leef be leyd upon my bere;
\nFor which unto your mercy thus I crye,
\nBeth hevy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!
\n 
\nNow voucheth sauf this day, or hyt be nyght,
\nThat I of yow the blisful soun may here,
\nOr se your colour lyk the sonne bryght,
\nThat of yelownesse had never pere.
\nYe be my lyf, ye be myne hertes stere,
\nQuene of comfort and of gode companye;
\nBeth hevy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!
\n 
\nNow purs, that ben to me my lyves lyght
\nAnd saveour, as doun in this worlde here,
\nOut of this towne helpe me thurgh your myght,
\nSyn that ye wylle nat ben my tresorere;
\nFor I am shave as nye as any frere.
\nBut yet I prey unto youre curtesye,
\nBeth heavy ayeyn, or elles mot I dye!
\n 
\nLenvoy de Chaucer<\/em>
\n 
\nO conqueror of Brutes Albyoun,
\nWhich that by lyne and fre eleccion
\nBen verray kyng, this song to you I sende;
\nAnd ye, that mowen alle oure harmes amende,
\nHave mynde upon my supplicacioun.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Guardian Book Blog Poem of the Week<\/a> has more details on the poem if you’d like background (or to see what medieval pennies looked like).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a running list of poems to include this month, but none of them were singing to me. There’s a bit too much stress in my world right now to feel very poetic. That is until I Googled around a bit and remembered "The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse." What a perfect poem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-literature","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-fN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}