Geoffrey Chaucer, Refurbished
Yanks on Holiday
A parody of the General Prologue from “The Canterbury Tales”
Here bygynneth the book ō̆ver behōste tō the world Here begins the book Overland to the World
When in June and the spring showers end — And disperse the rains to the heavens, and send The pigeons to peck the crumbs at Trafalgar — And prompt the public to thumb the vernacular; When Admiral Nelson, with his commanding physique — Choking from exhaust fumes and pathogens discreet — Gazes upon his Square, teeming with tourists, His glories known only to the purest; When Londoners are all cell-a-Tweetin’ — Who text away with fingers a’ bleedin’, (So Nature's a stage where Shadows do play) — Then the Yankees partake a holiday. A fortnight feast of the ripe, old Country — Tales uncoiling with bathos, and ribaldry; From England ‘cross the Continent to Rome — To snap a pic of Saint Pete's to text home; Through a coach window they'll take The Grand Tour, To tick off the sites, gleaned from a brochure.
This is the opening prologue for my parody-mock-satirical novel, Overland to the World, a collection of interrelated tales about Americans on a European coach holiday, which has been published in serialised form on Medium. As a pretentious and affected Anglophile, I purposely used the “s” instead of the “z.”
Thank you to Dr. Cindy Vitto and Dr. Edward Wolfe for my studies in Medieval and British literature.
Thank you for reading! More literary humor on Medium from Walter Bowne:
