SOURCE: Owen, Charles A., Jr. “Notes on Gower's Prosody.” Chaucer Review 28, no. 4 (1994): 405-13.

In the following essay, Owen considers the French influence on Gower's methods of versification, particularly on his stylistic use of rhyme.

Courtly poetry in English had its birth in the mid-fourteenth century under the influence of the Roman de la Rose and of contemporary French poets, especially Guillaume de Machaut. As R. F. Yeager has shown,¹ English poets did not simply imitate their French mentors. Gower in particular reacted against the ideals implicit in fin amour and developed in the Confessio Amantis a moral vision deeply Christian that found its consummation in married love and political concord.

Though Gower rejected the ethos of courtly love, he was still much indebted to his French contemporaries. Their influence was especially strong on his prosody. Yeager and Masayoshi Ito² have both given extensive consideration recently to this aspect...