born 1330?
died 1408, London?
English poet.
His works, in the tradition of courtly love and moral allegory, strongly influenced other poets of his day. His friend Geoffrey Chaucer called him "moral Gower." His Speculum meditantis ( 0441; 137478), written in French, is an allegorical work on vices and virtues. Vox clamantis (1385?), his major Latin poem, owes much to Ovid . His greatest work in English is the Confessio Amantis (begun 0441; 1386), a long collection of exemplary tales of love.