The opening lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, with Chaucer’s classically poetic and amorous language, describe the evocation of spring, echoing in the minds of his audience, as if the renewed warmth, sweet sounds and refreshing smells could be perceived by human senses.

“When April with his showers sweet The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with such power To generate fresh strength and sire the flower; When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath, Quickened again, in every wood and heath, The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun Into the Ram one half his course has run, And many little birds make melody That sleep through all the night with open eye (So Nature urges them on to ramp and rage)”

The first 11 lines have all the essential elements of the conventional first stanza of a love lyric, indicating the vitality of springtime: April’s sweet showers, budding flowers, burgeoning leaves, the warm Zephyr, the melodious chirps of birds stimulated by the beauty of Nature. The whole imagery triggers narrator’s poetic sensibilities as well as the readers. It is about a sense of relief after the harshness of a long winter and a keen anticipation of all the lovable things that would follow. Besides, Chaucer employs vivid verbs, together with rhythmic phrases like “holt and heath”, “shoots and buds”, “ramp and rage”, which convey a strong sense of masculine energy to further intensify the renewed reproductive power of spring. The verbs like “engender” (sire), “pierce”, “inspire” (quicken), “prick” translated from the original text describing natural movement of spring, all have an amorous connotation behind them to add to its sexual vigor. However, quite different from the monotonous opening of a conventional love story with its moderate description, the first 11 lines have a mysterious and