Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
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The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
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And bathed every veyne in swich licour
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Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
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Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
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Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
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Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
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Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
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And smale foweles maken melodye,
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That slepen al the nyght with open ye
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(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
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Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
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And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
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To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
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And specially from every shires ende
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Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
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The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
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That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
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Bifil that in that seson on a day,
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In southwerk at the tabard as I lay
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Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
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To caunterbury with ful devout corage,
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At nyght was come into that hostelrye
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Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
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Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
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In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
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That toward caunterbury wolden ryde.
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The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
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And wel we weren esed atte beste.
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And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
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So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
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That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
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And made forward erly for to ryse,
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To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
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But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
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Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
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Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
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To telle yow al the condicioun
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Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
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And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
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And eek in what array that they were inne;
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And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.
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A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,
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That fro the tyme that he first bigan
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To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
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Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.
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Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
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And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
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As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,
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And evere honoured for his worthynesse.
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At Alisaundre he was whan it was wonne.
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Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne
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Aboven alle nacions in pruce;
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In lettow hadde he reysed and in ruce,
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No cristen man so ofte of his degree.
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In gernade at the seege eek hadde he be
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Of algezir, and riden in belmarye.
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At lyeys was he and at satalye,
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Whan they were wonne; and in the grete see
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At many a noble armee hadde he be.
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At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene,
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And foughten for oure feith at tramyssene
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In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo.
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This ilke worthy knyght hadde been also
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Somtyme with the lord of palatye
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Agayn another hethen in turkye.
Music Monday
Another “your choice” week. How about new music from icons of the 60’s and 70’s? Let’s start with Jimmy Buffett’s posthumous hit, “Bubbles Up”. The Rolling Stones released a new song in 2023, it’s called “Angry”. The surviving Beatles (with some help from AI) released “Now and Then”. And then Billy Joel … The AI effects in the video blew me away… A note about the AI effects … the Beatles used it to isolate John’s vocals on an old demo. Billy Joel had a young man play the piano then superimposed his own face onto the image of the younger man.
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