Sir Thomas Wyatt

Whoso List to Hunt

Sir Thomas's poem "Whoso List to Hunt" wasn't too hard to understand. He was trying to catch a deer, and he is describing his dissapointment in not being able to capture her, but he will not give up ("I am of them that farthest cometh behind.Yet may I by no means my wearied mind"). He is saying that he is not giving up, he is just falling farther behind. As the deer gets farther away he realizes that the odds of catching her is like catching wind in a net ("I leave off therefore,Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind"). The last lines baffle me though. I don't understand them he says that around the deers neck she wears a necklace that says "Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am" which means touch me not, for I am Caesar's. Does it mean that it is Caesar's deer to hunt? or is it suggesting something deeper that I just can't seem to grasp? I am not really sure

I find no peace

I thought this poem was a little harder to understand. Wyatt says

"I love another, and thus I hate myself."

Why does he hate himself? In my opinion it is impossible to love someone else without first loving yourself. How can you have trust and love into somebody else when you don't even feel it within. Maybe that is what he is trying to say, that he cannot love because he does not love himself. He says that he laughs in all of his pain. why? why does he not love hiself? I don't really get it. To me it seems kind of like a suicidal poem. Maybe he is frustrated with his whole love situation and thinks that death is the only way out of it. I am sure everyone has felt like that at one time or another, when you get so frustrated about something (love in this case) that you just think how much easier it would be if you could just kill yourself. But then you come to a realization that the thought you just had was very stupid and of course you aren't going to kill yourself over the stupid jar you cannot get open!

My Galley

"As though that death were light in such a case"

okay, what is it with Wyatt and death?? He seems to be a very sad and depressed person.

"A rain of tears, a cloud of dark disdain,"

He obviously has a lot of emotion locked inside that he is trying to get out. Is he talking about his mind? It would make sense. His mind is forgetfull, his mind has "a rain of tears" or he is in a dark place. I don't really know about this poem, but I think that Sir Thomas Wyatt may have needed some counseling.