Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born on 1340 in London, England. In 1357 he became a public servant to Countess Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in that capacity with the British court throughout his lifetime. "The Canterbury Tales" became his best known and most acclaimed work. He is considered as the outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of the language.” 

The legendary 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer died on October 25th, 1400 in London, England. He died of unknown causes and was 60 years old at that time. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey. His gravestone became the center of what was to be called Poet’s Corner, a spot where such famous British writers as Robert Browning and Charles Dickens were later honored and interred.

One of the reasons Chaucer is so important for English literature is that he made the decision to start writing in English and not in French. 

In the 14th century, following the Norman invasion, French was the language spoken by those in power. "The Canterbury Tales" was one of the first major works in literature written in English. 

Chaucer began "the tales" in 1387 and continued until his death in 1400. No text in his own hand still exists, but a surprising number of copies survive from the 1500s - more than 80. This suggests "the tales" were enormously popular in medieval England.

 He also contributed importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management of public affairs as courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three successive kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his avocation—the writing of poetry—for which he is remembered.

Humorous and profound, his writings show him to be an acute observer of his time with a deft command of many literary genres.

Chaucer is believed to have written the poem Troilus and Criseyde sometime in the mid-1380s. Troilus and Criseyde is a narrative poem that retells the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde in the context of the Trojan War. Chaucer wrote the poem using rime royal, a technique he originated. Rime royal involves rhyming stanzas consisting of seven lines apiece.

Geoffrey Chaucer is considered one of the first great English poets. He is the author of such works as “The Parliament of Fouls”, “Troilus and Criseyde” and  ”The Canterbury Tales”.  

“The Canterbury Tales”, that he wrote, ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English.

Some historians of Chaucer’s work assert that it was written in 1380, during marriage negotiations between Richard and Anne of Bohemia. Critic J.A.W. Bennet interpreted the Parliament of Fouls as an study of Christian love. 

It had been identified as peppered with Neo-Platonic ideas inspired by the likes of poets Cicero and Jean De Meun, among others.