courage even though doom gets the
             better of him at the end of the story.
             Another heroic poem is "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." This poem
             combines many elements and operates on man levels. For instance, we find
             Christian ideals mixed with ancient folklore. Surprisingly, the poem is
             quite entertaining while depicting the codes of chivalry that every knight
             desired to achieve. The poem is also unique in that it utilizes satire and
             romance to illustrate its points. Abrams asserts that it is the best of
             Another significant poet to emerge from the Middle Ages is Geoffrey
             Chaucer. Chaucer is known for his famous Canterbury tales. These tales
             are a mixture of colorful characters that are beyond comparison. In fact,
             Abrams notes that Chaucer's "artistic exploitation" of framing fiction is
             something he can call his own. The Canterbury Tales is superbly written.
             For example, Chaucer combines two narratives within the tales--the story
             told by the narrator and the story related to the narrator's own life.
             Most of the tales reveal a moral but not without humor.
             The Renaissance literally means rebirth. The word alone causes
             controversy when we consider exactly what Renaissance means and when it
             began. Most historians agree that the age we refer to as the Renaissance
             lasted around 200 years, beginning around mid-1300s and surviving until the
             1600s. While their may be discrepancies regarding when this period began,
             there can be no question that the Renaissance is responsible for
             contributing some of the greatest literature since that of ancient Rome. A
             primary reason for this time of flourishing literature stems from the fact
             that artists and writers from this period were moving away from the
             traditional religious symbolism we find in the Medieval Ages and moving
             toward classical ideals. Humanism was also a contributing factor in the
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