Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (English Edition). Geoffrey Chaucer

"Our Hoste saw well that the brighte sun Th' arc of his artificial day had run The fourthe part, and half an houre more; And, though he were not deep expert in lore, He wist it was the eight-and-twenty day Of April, that is messenger to May; And saw well that the shadow of every tree Was in its length of the same quantity That was the body erect that caused it; And therefore by the shadow he took his wit."