Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is one of the greatest narrative poems in English and one of the few poems of physical love. It is often overshadowed by the Canterbury Tales but David Benson argues that the poem has it's own profound multiplicity with a mixture of genres, styles, characters and competing elements creating a powerful literary experience for each reader. The author explores the diversity and extent of the contradictions produced by the poem but does not attempt to resolve them.