Margaret Wilson
Biography:
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a diplomat, ambassador, and lyric poet during the time of cultural, economic, political, and artistic rebirth within Europe, known as the Renaissance. The fight for power, sexual curiosity, and lavish standards of the Renaissance courts surely played into Wyatt’s success as an author. As a courtier to the ruthless Henry VIII, Wyatt’s life was risky, competitive, hazardous, and unpredictable. He was said to have had a “special relationship” with Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. He was, inevitably, imprisoned within the Tower of London on accusations of adultery with her. Somehow he was spared this time along with the second time he was imprisoned on accounts of treason years later. Amid this career, it makes sense that many of Wyatt’s poems include a longing for steadfastness and escape from the corruption and deceitfulness of the English court. He served on diplomatic missions to France and the Low Countries and was also an ambassador to Spain, which all significantly impacted his writing, infusing it with the spirit of Continental Renaissance poetry and of its creator and master of the Italian Sonnet, Francesco Petrarch. Wyatt brought the Italian Sonnet to England and used much subject matter from Petrarch’s sonnets, but incorporated a significantly different rhyme scheme.
Summary:
“Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt is a sonnet that uses an extended metaphor to unveil the relationship between love and desire, however, it is not a romantic poem. The poem depicts a hunter in a devoted hunt for a specific hind, or deer, which serves as a metaphor for the poet’s romantic pursuit of a woman he deems impossible for him or any other man to catch (English). The speaker was once engaged in the hunt for this woman and even though he wishes to continue, he has since abandoned the cause as he became mentally and physically exhausted in the process. After declaring defeat, the speaker cannot stop thinking about the woman but expresses he is willing to reveal the location of the hind, or woman, to others who desire her even though attempting to hunt her is a lost cause. He compares trying to catch this woman to catching air in a net. He has done his best to catch her but is always “of them that farthest come behind”, declaring that he always remains with those who come last no matter how vigorous the pursuit. In the final lines of the poem, Wyatt describes “letters” in diamond around the women’s neck that says “Noli me tangere” which is Latin for “Do not touch me” followed by “for Caesar’s I am”. This displays how precious and sacred the deer is and that it belongs to a man as powerful as Caesar, the Roman emperor, and cannot be caught by a simple poet, like himself (LitCharts).
Analysis:
“Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt is an adaptation of Petrarch’s Sonnet 190 that also utilizes the theme of unrequited love. Wyatt adapts Petrarch’s form and uses it to cunningly convey his own message and leave it up to interpretation by the reader (The). The entire poem utilizes an extended metaphor symbolizing unreciprocated love. Throughout the poem, Wyatt writes as if he, or the speaker, is a hunter pursuing a hind that symbolizes the woman he is chasing after. He begins the poem by declaring defeat yet he continues to pursue her. The speaker talks of his exhaustion and weariness from the hunt he underwent with extreme devotion even though he implies to have known all along it was pointless. Although he faced much frustration and despair in chasing this woman, the speaker seems to find joy in engaging in this vigorous pursuit of his love. Why would he continue to pursue this woman that is seemingly impossible to obtain and obviously not returning the love he offers? This suggests that the speaker is conveying that the most pleasurable love is found in the thrill of chasing the one who refuses to be loved (LitCharts). This also makes me think that he is, in a way, bragging about the adversity and pain he is willing to suffer for the woman he loves. However, as I continue to analyze the poem, it begins to suggest that his pursuit is the result of an obsession rather than a love interest. “Touch me not” written in diamond letters around her neck shows how precious and sacred she is, but is she sacred and precious to him? Or has his immense “love” for her developed from an obsessive fixation that he yearns to obtain (Also, the diamond’s around her neck seem a little like a collar that would go on a dog which implies how he views her as wild, unpredictable and as an animal that belongs to someone, and this is the first time she is described in the poem and, ofcourse, it is revolving around her relation to a man – misogyny smh…). Speaking of misogyny and gender roles, a hunt is a rather violent, wild, and deadly pursuit, which obviously does not seem like a safe place to be for a woman. This puts into perspective the gender stereotypes of the time this poem was written. Women were dehumanized or alluded to as animals and men were socially conditioned to think or talk about women in this objectifying way that implies women have no agency and are not smart enough to look after themselves, similar to that of a wild animal being seen as a second-class citizen. Wyatt does not challenge gender roles, but he reinforces them as he depicts that men are supposed to hunt and women should flee, categorizing women as the worth of mere property to be obtained and owned by a deserving man (Tavini). However, the woman in this poem refuses to be caught and avoids the man with such skills and expertise that he has to concede his hunt which contrasts the speaker’s perspective on a woman’s role in love. Later in the poem, it is called to question if the woman is exercising her freedom in refusing to be caught or if she just already belongs to someone and must reside with them eternally. In this sense, she must never allow herself to be caught by another man because that would be a betrayal to her current “owner”, which does indeed fall into the speaker’s perspective of a woman’s role within a relationship, but it is just an emotional failure for him. “For Caesar’s I am” is also transcribed around the woman’s neck, which implies that she already belongs to a man as powerful as Caesar, the Roman emperor, which deems her powerless. It is said that the man being referenced is Henry VIII, and if you know anything about English history, one might say he was a powerful man you would not want to cross. The woman that belonged to him was Ann Boleyn, whom Wyatt was imprisoned on accusations of adultery with. With this being said, the speaker reveals that the woman’s skill and agility which were previously presumed as the reason she is unable to be caught are not an act of freedom, but actually go hand in hand with the speaker’s role for her as a woman. Women are the pursued and men are the pursuers; However, this woman has already been pursued by a powerful man, leaving her unable to be caught by any other admirers and suggesting that women can never truly be free but they are simply always restricted to an agency that is not their own (LitCharts).
Works Cited:
“English Literature.” StudySmarter UK,www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english- literature/poets/whoso-list-to-hunt/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.
Greenblatt, Stephen. “Whoso List to Hunt” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Core Selections. Available from: University of Alabama, (10th Edition). W. W. Norton, 2021.
LitCharts. “Whoso List to Hunt Summary & Analysis by Sir Thomas Wyatt.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/poetry/sir-thomas-wyatt/whoso-list-to-hunt-i-know-where-is-an-hind. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.
Tavini, Gabriella. “Whoso List to Hunt by Sir Thomas Wyatt || A-Level Poetry Analysis.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Dec. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0FaYgMl00.
“The Renaissance Period Of English Literature.” ukessays.com. 11 2018. UKEssays. 02 2024 <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/the-renaissance-period-of-english-literature-english-literature-essay.php?vref=1>.