“Upon an argent field an eagle sable”

I’m in a prompt trying mood today and I found one on “We Drink Because We’re Poets” that I want to try. Here are the rules:

Pick up your favorite book and open it on a random page. The 10th sentence or line on that page is what you will build and write on. The trick?

You should construct the continuum of the line you got from the book in rhyme and you should do this for 4 more lines. Then, open another random page and repeat the process, until you are satisfied with length and everything else that you composed.

Picking my favorite book would be a bit complicated so I’m going to use the book in front of me – The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer – to complete this prompt. Without further adieu:

Upon an argent field an eagle sable
Flew across the sky to watch the men die.
He waited to feast until he was able –
He listened anxious as they screamed and cry.

Then slowly changed the color in each face,
An archer from the victors looked onward
and the eagle’s location he did trace.
He reached for an arrow and aimed upward.

And as the morning opened on the day
the eagle did all he could to fly away.
But the silver arrow flew too fast
and the eagle hit the ground at last.

To run, and reached the tree, and there they found
The sable eagle upon the argent ground.
He placed the animal in his pouch
and continued to the woods somewhat crouched.

The knot and gist of every tale that’s told;
is to act without being too bold,
to live without being too anxious
and watch from far away spaces.

…

I modified the assignment a little bit (I did three lines instead of four) to fit my rhyme structure. It was a fun prompt!

Line one is from The Monk’s Tale,
Line five is from The Knight’s Tale,
Line nine is from The Clerk’s Tale.
Line 13 is from The Pardoner’s Tale,
Line 17 is from The Squire’s Tale