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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3082 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 8, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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If you're reading the Nevill Coghill version, which is old, he used the iambic pentameter of the original, which is possibly why the word screw is used. This is, ironically, an attempt at maintaining the poetic integrity of Chaucer. Try the David Wright version.

I'll check that out! My version, which I purchased for a great books course back in freshman year undergrad, is by Beidler. He doesn't do a poetic translation, but still rhymes occasionally, which I find off putting. If you aren't going to rhyme the whole time, I feel like you can never rhyme, because when I get a few rhymes I start expecting them to continue.

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