Editing Poperinge (section)

==Literary associations==
Poperinge is mentioned by two major English poets. [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] makes it the birthplace of his Flemish knight in "[[The Tale of Sir Thopas]]" from the ''Canterbury Tales''.<ref>''Yborn he was in fer contree,/In Flaundres, al biyonde the see,/At Poperyng in the place'', [http://www.librarius.com/cantales/thopastl.htm lines 7-9]</ref> Some 150 years later [[John Skelton (poet)|John Skelton]] follows a line in Flemish with the mention that 'In Popering grew pears when parrot was an egg' in his enigmatic poem "Speak Parrot".<ref>''John Skelton, Selected Poems'' (ed. Gerald Hammond),  Manchester UK 1980 [https://books.google.com/books?id=0Trjd8OqOdwC&dq=In+Popering+grew+pears+ere+parrot+was+an+egg&pg=PA93 line 70, p. 93]</ref> The poem is an attack on [[Cardinal Wolsey]] and the line is taken to refer to his ambition to become Pope.<ref>David Wallace, ''Premodern Places'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=FtOyXfSSXS0C&q=Poperinge p. 130, note 51]</ref>

The town has also been associated with several [[Neo-Latin]] poets. Jacques May (Jacobus Majus) was born in Poperinge and left a Latin verse epistle in [[Sapphic stanza|sapphics]] dated 1563. Later in the century [[Maximiliaan de Vriendt]], who was born elsewhere, wrote a poem that praised the town and its churches:
:::''Non formosa pales, non hospitae in urbe napeae,''
:::''Non agiles radii, Palidiique coli''
:::''Non celebres baiae (quae dos tua propria) tantis''
:::''Nominibus celebrem te, Poperinga vehunt:''
:::''Quantum larga manus, pietasque insigne avorum,''
:::''In superos templis testificata sacris.''
:::''Omnia de nobis praedantur fata: Tonanti''
:::''Quas damus, has solas semper habemus opes.''<ref>Altmeyer (1840), pp. 59-60</ref>

The Flemish poet Gislain de Coninck, who was born in the town, translated the Latin poems of Charles Wynkius in ''Himni, Quorum Usus Est In Ecclesiastico Dei Cultu'', and the two were published together in 1573.<ref>Ferdinand François, E. van der Haeghen, ''Bibliographie Gantonoise'', Ghent 1858,
[https://books.google.com/books?id=ghICAAAAQAAJ&dq=Poperinghe+poeme&pg=PA200 pp199-200]</ref> Then in the following century there were two more Latin poets from the town, Joannes Bartholomaeus Roens and Petrus Wenis (1648-1726).<ref>Tom Deneire, "The Latin Works of Two Poets from Poperinge: Joannes Bartholomaeus Roens and Petrus Wenis", in ''Syntagmatia: Essays on NeoLatin Literature in Honour of [[Monique Mund-Dopchie]] and Gilbert Tournoy'', Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 26, Leuven University Press, 2006, (pp. 709-721).</ref> Wenis published ''Gheestelycken nachtegael'' (The Spiritual Nightingale, 1698) on the miracle that restored a still-born child to life in 1479, an event associated with the statue of Our Lady in Sint-Janskerk that is still celebrated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mariaommegang.be/item.php?lang=EN&itemno=4|title=Background details|website=Mariaommegang.be|access-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402125011/http://www.mariaommegang.be/item.php?lang=EN&itemno=4|archive-date=2 April 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In modern times, the town was referred to in one of the epigrams in [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s ''Amœnitates Belgicæ''. In “Une Béotie belge” the sophisticated French-speakers of Brussels look down on the rustic Poperinghe of their Flemish compatriots.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Une_B%C3%A9otie_belge|title=Une Béotie belge - Wikisource|website=Fr.wikisource.org|access-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> In the following century, the town is the subject of the imagist night piece "Poperinghe 1917" by the Canadian poet [[W. W. E. Ross]].<ref>Brian Douglas Tennyson, ''The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs'', The Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 345, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rJHBELr463MC&dq=Ross+%22Poperinghe+1917%22&pg=PA345 note 1544]</ref>