SOURCE: Loewenstein, David A. “Skelton's Triumph: The Garland of Laurel and Literary Fame.” Neophilologus 68, No. 4 (October 1984): 611-22.

In the following essay, Loewenstein maintains that the Garland of Laurel uses self-parody and exaggeration to evaluate, question, and celebrate Skelton's poetic character and literary fame.

Skelton's Garland of Laurel has received less critical consideration and praise than his other major works.¹ Yet the poem deserves attention because it evaluates, in a lively and imaginative manner, Skelton's poetic career and the meaning of literary fame.² Like Chaucer in the House of Fame, to which the Garland is indebted, Skelton takes a skeptical view of Fame and her favors; but unlike his master, he finally celebrates his own apotheosis with the spirit of a Renaissance poet.

The Garland, as A. C. Spearing has shown, belongs to a tradition of medieval dream-poetry.³ Skelton finds himself alone in the Forest of Galtres near Sheriff...