John Gower

John Gower (1330?-1408), English poet, a contemporary of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. He probably belonged to a prosperous Kentish family and was a landholder in Suffolk and Norfolk. He was a friend of Chaucer, who addressed his Troilus and Criseyde to “moral Gower,” and he was a court poet under Richard II and Henry IV.

Gower's principal works are three long poems written in different languages. Speculum Meditantis or Mirour de l'omme (Mirror of Thought, 1376?), in French, is an allegory treating the nature of human beings, their sins and virtues, and their deliverance from sin. Vox Clamantis (Voice of Complaint, 1382?), written in Latin elegiac verse, describes Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 and deals with the faults of the various classes of society. Confessio Amantis (Confession of a Lover, 1390?), Gower's greatest and best-known work, is a standard of Middle English. Written at the command of Richard II, it is a collection of tales illustrating the vices that may accompany love, told by a lover to a priest of Venus. In turn, the priest initiates the poet in the concept of courtly and Christian love. In addition to the long poems, Gower wrote minor poems in English, French, and Latin.