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Love Through the Ages Poetry Notes (pre-1900)
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Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hyndeContext
Sir Thomas Wyatt
● Member of Henry VIII's court
● Rumoured to have been romantically involved w/ AB in 1520s (before marriage to Henry VIII)
● According to some sources, was her childhood friend
● Said his aim as poet was to experiment w/ English tongue
● Significant amount of his work was translation or imitation of Petrarchan sonnets
● Was first to write sonnets in English, influenced Shakespeare - gave English shape to
Petrarchan sonnet (w/ help of Earl of Surrey)
● One of originators of love poetry convention in which mistress is portrayed as heard-hearted &
cruel
● As ambassador, travelled widely through Southern Europe
● Poetry noted for being a personal note w/ authentic private feeling
● Poems not published until 15yrs after he died - revealed private thoughts
Hunting
● Exclusively for royalty & aristocracy
● Hunting scenes were common subjects in medieval & Renaissance art
● Became accepted metaphor for elaborate rituals of courtship & courtly love, w/ woman
represented by deer
Deer
● Goddess Diana often accompanied by deer, representing status as goddess of hunting &
virginity
● Diana was also powerful - seen as symbol of dangerous sexuality after turning Acteon (a
hunter) into a deer when he saw her naked
Literary Context
● Sonnet typically two parts (octet & sestet)
● Traditionally offer problem in octet & solution in sestet
● Change between 2 (volta) is shift in mood or tone
● Poem links heavily to Petrarch's Sonnet 190 (Una Candida Cerva)
● More of a transformation than translation
● Deer has topazes as well as diamonds around her neck as well as diamonds - symbol
of chastity. Diamonds represent steadfastness - Wyatt's quarry is steadfast only
● Petrarch's sonnet has much calmer tone
● All Petrarch's attention is on vision of white doe whereas Wyatt begins by
challenging his friends
● Dominant feeling is less of ecstatic wonder but more so bitter defeat
● Wyatt replaces 'It has pleased my Caesar to make me free' w/ 'for Caesar's I am' -
more sinister, links to Henry VIII's sexual acquisitiveness & jealousy
Anne Boleyn
● Executed 1536, Henry VIII claimed she was unfaithful but real 'crime' was failing to produce
heir
● Wyatt was arrested on charges of adultery, rumoured as previous suitor of Anne's but ousted
by King
● Released w/o charge due to friendship w/ Cromwell
● Though to have witnessed her execution from his cell
Attitudes, Themes & Ideas
● Allegory - structural metaphor, reader brought close to poet who reveals his feelings &
thoughts about romantic pursuit
● Sense of realism contrasts to Petrarch - tone of disillusionment, frustration & bitterness in love
, ● Typical of Petrarchan tradition as man is suffering
● Man lacks power so woman can be elevated
Presentation of Women
● Metaphors of hunting women ascribe vicious connotations of courtship
● Women are dehumanised & expected to 'flee' to make matter interesting, but then willingly
submit once caught
● Undertaking more about acquisition than love
● Victim ideally attractive to make more worthy prize
● Metaphor ends at moment of capture - sexual, imagery of carnal conquest
● 'I knowe where is an hynde' - woman readily available, unlike Petrarch's disappearing doe
● Lack of topaz demonstrates missing chastity
● 'Who list her hount' - unusual placing of 'hount', pun on vagina-synonym with which it rhymes
● Camouflaged vulgarity & undeniable sexual aggression
● Is evidence that speaker relates to deer's plight
● Harassed 'hind' & his 'wearied mind' are allied by rhyme scheme
● 'vayne travaill' of pursuit recognised, also linking to vanity
● 'Noli me tangere quia Caesaris sum' - worn on collars of white stags (male deer) in C3rd Italy
● Wyatt sympathising w/ controlled court woman
● Wyatt depended on monarch's grace throughout most of his life - paid to be loyal to
King
● 'hynde' can mean domestic servant as well as female deer
● Wyatt is 'tame' courtier but still shares 'wylde' desires of his won
Desire
● Desire for possession & domination
● Speaker struggling to extinguish desire - 'I leve of therefore/Sithen in a nett I seke to hold the
wynde' should be end of poem but continues because can't give up
● Juxtaposition of 'I ame' & 'I seme' stresses conflict between natural wildness & enforced
obedience
Unattainable Love
● Speaker chases woman whom he cannot & must not catch because she is a prize of the land's
ruler
● Metaphor for frustration experienced after circumstances prevent them from achieving a goal
● 'I seke to hold the wynde' - demonstrates futility of hunt but unwilling to give in
Bowing to Power
● When pursuing Anne, Wyatt encounters all powerful rival, Henry VIII
● Knows that defying rival will lead to execution so gives in
● Acknowledgement of futility but still a struggle to stop
Analysis
Octet
● Begins w/ bold challenge 'Who so list to hount' - unlike Petrarch whose focus is on vision of
white doe (Laura), young man urges friends out to chase (metaphorical or literal), invitation
might also imply her ready availability
● Aspirant sounds in 1st line - reinforces sense of pace of hunt
● 'so sore' - intensifier shows love is painful
● 'vayne travail' 'weried mynde' - feels defeated
● 'I am of them that furthest come behind' - continues extended metaphor, can't keep up w/
hunting party
● Lots of fricative alliteration & sibilance, showing weakness & perhaps representing the 'wynde'
● 'Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde' - comparison of woman to the wind & catching her
like catching the win, difficulty, portrayal of woman as wild animal
Sestet
, ● Subtle change marked by beginning of sestet, 'Who list her hount'
● Poet now addressing individual & closing in on emotional quarry, near repetition of
1st line but not quite, exploits form's potential for harmony & disjunction
simultaneously
● Irregular syntax, makes speaker sound unsure of himself
● 'Noli me tangere' - 'touch me not', direct translation of Jesus' words from Vulgate bible (Jn
20:17) - elevates woman
● Wyatt's hind only wears diamonds, suggests she isn't chaste
● 'wylde for to hold though I seme tame' - 'wild' in sense of dangerous sexuality, can hurt you
Form & Structure
● Frequent conjunctions create stop-start, staccato, breathless effect
● Eye-rhyme & rime riche enable Wyatt to move lightly through challenge of rhyme scheme
● Eye-rhyme looks close enough to be recognised but isn't attainable as a rhyme,
much like speaker's desire for female
● Rhyme seems reluctant or unable to progress, like speaker
● ABBAABBA CDDCEE rhyme scheme, almost identical to Petrarch's
● Para-rhyme at end shows speaker's loss & hurt
● Mostly iambic pentameter but altered in line 7 particularly - 'Faynting I followe. I leve of
therefore'
● Trochee of 'Faynting' reflects action
● Iamb 'I followe' shows return to chase as can't escape it
● 'I leve of therefore' - spondee ('leave of' - heavy, loud) then unstressed vowel,
elongated
Key Quotes
'Who so list to hount, I know where is an hynde'
● Aspirant alliteration - out of breath
● Bold challenge, juxtaposed by melancholy tone of poem
● 'hynde' is metaphor, contrast to start of sestet which is more explicit ('Who list her hount)
● 'hynde' = female deer, link to goddess Diana & Petrarch's Sonnet 190
'Faynting I followe. I leave of therefore'
● Irregular metre - empathises different aspects of line
● Trochee 'Faynting' demonstrates weakness & action of fainting
● Iamb 'I followe' shows return to chase as can't escape it
● 'I leve of therefore' - spondee ('leave of' - heavy, loud) then unstressed vowel, elongated
'Sithens in a nette I seke to hold the wynde'
● Metaphor - woman like the wind, wild, unattainable
● Demonstrates futility of hunt, but he still 'seke[s]' it
● End of octet, should be end of poem but continues because unable to stop himself
'There is written her faier neck round about'
● Writing round neck, sign of property - irony of how woman has a voice but only through owner
, ● Also ironic as it says she is 'wylde' but is actually someone else's property - paradox, has a
voice but someone has laid claim to her
● Reference to 'neck' may be reference to beheading, neck is place of weakness & vulnerability,
link to AB
'Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame'
● Reference to Jn 20:17, Jesus saying disciples can't touch him because he hasn't ascended -
elevates status of woman
● Cesar = someone in power, potentially Henry VIII
● Illegal to hunt King's deer & serious consequences for courting his lovers
Sonnet 116
Context
Sonnet
● Introduced to English by Wyatt but most famously used by Shakespeare
● Built around love & impediments to love
● W/o impediment, lover would have no need to resort to poetry
● Shakespeare’s sonnets tell story using characters
o Sonnets 1-126 are addressed to a ‘fair youth’ – romantic & loving language used
o Some suggest Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is this Fair Youth
o Sonnets 127-154 feature the ‘dark lady’ & become more sexual in tone
● Affair later indicated between fair youth & dark lady, but nature of relationship between
speaker & fair youth is ambiguous
● All published in 1609 (not posthumous)
Sonnets 115 & 117
● In Sonnet 115, Shakespeare suggests growth of potency of love over time
● Speaker seems to yearn for certainty & wants to say decisively that at current time, he loves
fair youth as much as he ever can
● Following from Sonnet 115, Sonnet 116 seems to argue this is ‘Now’ when he loves the
youth ‘best’
● Sonnet 117 – speaker lists his faults, emotional distance between speaker & subject, focus
on inconstancy & betrayal
● In conclusion, speaker reveals he was only inconstant to prove virtue of subject’s love
towards him
Images in Poem
● ‘fixed marke’ – sea mark in Elizabethan times was lighthouse or spire of coastal church for
ships to navigate by
● Because of height, sea marks would look down on storms (‘tempests’) below
● Ships ‘barke[s]’ would navigate by the stars, particularly the unmoving North Star or Polaris
● Not known what starts were made of (‘whose worth unknown’) but angle of elevation above
horizon could be measured (‘his height be taken’)
● Time personified in poem & image of him links closely to Grim Reaper
● ‘sickle’ – scythe
● Reaping youth (‘rosy lips and cheeks’)
● Pictured, as convention dictates, w/ time piece or ‘compasse’ – could refer to arc of
circle created by his scythe, or extension of nautical metaphor of previous lines
Marriage
● Formal contract
● Far from contract between equals in Shakespeare’s time – women surrendered into control
of their husbands
● ‘marriage of true mindes’ – more idealistic, transcendent vision of marriage
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