The Rutland Tales Satirical Poetry Assessment

This pilgrimage will offer you as seniors an opportunity to reflect on your school experience, to pay homage to
those who have touched your lives, and to laugh with your class. You will learn to incorporate a variety of
Chaucerian literary devices in your writing, and will practice speaking and listening skills. You will also see how
it feels to be a writer as we climb into the authors shoes and walk for a few miles.
When you create and experience a pilgrimage, your understanding of The Canterbury Tales is significantly
enriched. You begin to perceive the relevance of Chaucers vivid Tales to your own life, as you hold a satirical
lens to the cultural surroundings you know best: your own school and American society.
You must learn to identify and employ such elements of satire as hyperbole, verbal irony, and tone. Chaucers
satire relies heavily on direct and indirect characterization; since the genre criticizes human foibles, your
"characters" must exhibit the range of strengths and weaknesses which Chaucer illuminates in his portrait of
medieval English society.
You must also master poetic techniques such as alliteration and rhyme.
You are to write a minimum of four ten-line stanzas; the stanzas must approximate contain ten syllables per
line and follow an AA, BB, CC rhyme scheme. The first ten-line stanza establishes a setting, or frame for the
tale, as in Chaucers famous opening to the "General Prologue." Remember that you must include literary
elements and of course, irony and satire. Remember to have a copy on Showbie (Oct 30th) for me to reread,
and remember to have a copy for yourself to tell the tale on presentation day.
Be careful about knowing where to draw the line. Chaucer's pilgrims represent types rather than specific
people, but he develops them carefully as individual characters. As you write your satirical portraits, your
subjects often emerge as recognizable individuals. Do not target or identify specific people here at Rutland.
In order to make sure you wield your pen gently when portraying people at school, you will show the
appropriate stanza to its subject, and ask the subject to initial it on the draft submitted to the teacher.
Defamation or personal attacks are not acceptable. Each stanza should provide either a celebration or
criticism of the beliefs, behaviors, values and attitudes of those people whom you observe around you.
Remember, Chaucer's head remained attached, in spite of his satirical remarks about others.

We have an English teacher named Hogan;

"More muscle, less fat!"that is his slogan.
A pedagogue who keeps us up all night
Satire in verse he expects us to write,
(Containing more syllables than it should)
Gee, thanks, Mr. H, you sure teached us good!

The verse is not perfect in the above example. The tales will be evaluated for quality in both technique and
content.

Reciting your tale completely from memory will earn you a 10 point bonus.
Technique (50%) 10 points each Content (50%) 10 points each

___Contains 10 syllables per line ___Contains 10 syllables per line

___Offers direct and indirect characterization,
including physicality
___Maintains Chaucerian rhyme
(AA/BB)___Appropriate criticism or celebration
___Employs verbal irony/satirical tone
___Profile is insightful, funny, illuminating
___Uses alliteration, metaphor, imagery, description,
allusion, and other devices
___Uses descriptive detail
___Is complete with at least 40 lines
___All stanzas are appropriate in content
___Offers direct and indirect characterization,
including physicality
___Maintains Chaucerian rhyme (AA/BB)
___Appropriate criticism or celebration
___Employs verbal irony/satirical tone
___Profile is insightful, funny, illuminating
___Uses alliteration, metaphor, imagery, description,
allusion, and other devices
___Uses descriptive detail
___Is complete with at least 40 lines
___All stanzas are appropriate in content

Start your rough draft here

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