![]() The medieval and the modern poets differ even in the most odious trait they share, their anti-Semitism. And his comedy-he can be very funny-is bitter and sardonic, as in the relish with which he might be said to leave a graffito on Chaucer’s monument. For him the springtime hurts, like the pins and needles of an awaking limb he might have preferred to keep numb. ![]() Eliot, by contrast, is neurasthenic, neurotic, hysterical. The first clause of the 20th century’s most important poem is both unforgettable in itself and an echo of another unforgettable line, one from the dawn of English poetry: “When that April with his shoures soote…” Hearty Chaucer invokes the springtime preparatory to narrating a merry pilgrimage even his satire is red-cheeked and high-spirited, forgiving of our frailty in the very lust with which he notices it. ![]()
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