As you will learn in class and from the reading, both the metrical template and the correspondence rules for iambic pentameter are quite simple. The basic idea of the correspondence rules is that the primary stressed syllable of a polysyllabic word must fall on the strong position of the template. Monosyllabic words can appear in both strong and weak positions. This simple characterization leaves a lot of the properties of iambic meter as it actually appears in verse out of account but it is enough for present purposes.

With regard to Chaucer's rhyme, the key point to keep in mind is that rhyming words at the end of lines of poetry have to share primary stressed vowels and that any following material has to be identical. Thus, "talking" and "walking" will rhyme but "talk" and "taut" will not.

In analyzing the rhyme and meter of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, however, we also have to take into account the differences between Chaucer's language and his spelling from that of later authors.

Your goals in this project are as follows:

First, choose 250 verse lines from the CT and scan them according to iambic pentameter meter, as discussed in class and in the reading by Fabb. Don't forget that line-initial feet and feet after a pause can be inverted. How many potential violations of the metrical template/correspondence rules do you find? List them.

Second, find all potential line-end rhyming pairs and list them.

Third, find all cases where the pronunciation versus a deletion of final weak 'e' in some word or words in a line has an effect on whether the line is metrically well- or ill-formed.

Fourth, find all the cases of line-end rhyme and determine whether the rhyme is well- or ill-formed. Does the pronunciation of one or both of the rhyming words ever require a different stress assignment than what we find in modern English? How many such cases do you find.

Discuss what your results tell us about the sound system of CT and how different it is from the system of modern English. One point to keep in mind, is that Chaucer's language has not undergone even the early stages of the Great Vowel Shift.