The Lyric Art of Chaucer: Songs and Letters in Troilus and Criseyde

Geoffrey Chaucer, regarded to be the greatest author of the medieval times, marked his mastery and gift in not only his narrative composition but also lyric poetry. Songs and letters, as significant mediums of lyric art, have an important role in his work Troilus and Criseyde, which was composed in the 1380s. In this work, Chaucer exhibits his lyric prowess in a superb and functional way by using the songs and letters which signalize themselves in the forms of mainly love, bliss, sorrow or complaint. In examining the lyric units in this work, new historicism is also used as a literary approach that connects the ancient and medieval times. Also some comparison with the works of Boccaccio, Robert Henryson and Shakespeare is made in terms of their using lyric units. The aim of this paper is to analyse Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde in terms of his use of songs and letters, functioning in several senses such as means of self-expression of characters – their bliss or afflictions, fundamental communication tools of characters, mediums that assure secrecy in terms of court literature and instruments representing both human love and eternal love