The Bad Apprentice
Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem The Canterbury Tales, "The Cook's
Prologue and Tale," tells a story about a man that would rather party than
work and would do anything to gamble. The Canterbury Tales uses the
iambic pentameter to depict the theme or lesson.
The author utilizes the use of five rhythmic units per line with an
unstressed and then stressed syllable to tell the story. Also used is
masculine rhyme, at the end of each line the end word rhymes with the next
line's end word. The flow makes the poem easier to read and enjoy.
The theme or the lesson of The Canterbury Tales, "The Cook's
Prologue and Tale," is that you do not bite the hand that feeds you. The
cook, in the poem, tells the story of an apprentice that gambles. The
apprentice steals from his master to gamble. The master finds out about the
theivery and kicks him out of his shop, leaving the apprentice out on his
own. The apprentice is then destitute.
The theme and rhythm of The Canterbury Tales makes reading it
enjoyable and logical.
