Structure and Meaning in the "Parlement of Foules."
- Author / Editor
- Frank, Robert Worth, Jr.
Structure and Meaning in the "Parlement of Foules."
- Published
- PMLA 71 (1956): 530-39.
- Description
- Argues that, although derived from differing sources, the three parts of PF--the prelude, the garden of love, and the debate--are unified in their presentation of three perspectives on love. Framed as a conventional love vision, the poem juxtaposes a stern, moralistic view of love, an exalted, courtly one, and a natural, "realistic" one. Together, the three provide a gentle "comedy of attitudes" that testifies to the power of love and the inadequacy of any single view of it.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Parliament of Fowls
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations