The Existential Mysteries as Treated in Certain Passages of Our Older Poets

Author / Editor
Pope, John C.

Title
The Existential Mysteries as Treated in Certain Passages of Our Older Poets

Published
Mary J. Carruthers and Elizabeth D. Kirk, eds. Acts of Interpretation (Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1982), pp. 345-62.

Description
Explicates tensions within several poetic evocations of mutability in English poetry: the Old English "Wanderer," "Beowulf," the end of Chaucer's TC (5.1835-48), and Spenser's Mutability Cantos. Chaucer and Spenser both use "equivocation" to express "seriously divergent views of the world, its value, and its mysteries . . . and [point] to an inexpressible synthesis."

Alternative Title
Acts of Interpretation

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde