Thomas Wyatt "WHOSO LIST TO HUNT?" POINTWISE THEMES AND CHARACTER SKETCHES WITH CRITICAL ANALYSIS & BACKGROUND
THE POEM:
1: WHOSO LIST TO HUNT, I KNOW WHERE IS AN HIND.
2: BUT AS FAR AS FOR ME HELAS ,I MAY NO MORE
3: THE VAIN TRAVAIL HATH WEARIED ME SO SORE.
4: I AM OF THEM THAT FARTHEST COMTH BEHIND
5: YET MAY I BY NO MEANS MY WEARIED MIND
6: DRAW FROM THE DEER BUT AS SHE FLEETH AFORE
7: FAINTING I FOLLOW. I LEAVE OFF THEREFORE,
8: SITHENS IN A NET I SEEK TO HOLD THE WIND
9: WHO LIST HIM, I OUT HIM OUT OF DOUBT.
10: AS WELL AS I MAY SPEND HIS TIME IN VAIN.
11: AND GRAVEN WITH DIAMONDS IN LETTERS PLAIN .
12: THERE IS WRITTEN ,HER FAIR NECK ROUND ABOUT .
13: NOLI ME TANGERE FOR CAESER'S I AM
14: AND WILD FOR TO HOLD THOUGH I SEEM TAME.
SUMMARY:
The poem starts from the poet's aspirations to pursue and present his love for his beloved reportedly Anne Boleyn the queen at the court of monarch Henry VIII.
1 :The beginning verses of the poem portrays us the image of a poet as tired and sick of pursuing his love ( Anne Boleyn). Whom he metaphorically mentions as hind (deer) .
2: As the verses progress Thomas Wyatt describes us how he is physically tired he want to give up hunting but can't give up even the though of hunting the hind. He describes his efforts in hunting as vain and travail .
3: Next he challenges every other men out there for hunting the hind and warns them of the consequences by saying just as my efforts were vain ,every other man who wants to hunt will fail to hunt the hind.
ANALYSIS:
1: Whoso list to hunt was written somewhere between early 1500s and mid 1500s when monarch Henry VIII ruled the English empire , monarch Henry was the one who was best known for his six marriages and having his first marriage annulled. Henry to initiated the ENGLISH REFORMATION, separating the CHURCH OF ENGLAND from papal authority.
2: He appointed himself as the supreme head of the church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy," as he invested heavily in the navy, increasing its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the NAVY BOARD.
3: Anne Boleyn was his second wife and Thomas Wyatt was one of the artists at the king's court.
4: Whoso list to hunt inscribed Thomas's inner feelings that he felt for Anne Boleyn.The exclamation in the first verse itself is descripatory for the fact that hunting was a common practice during the king's reign.
5: But the second verse reminds us of the fact that how he is excommunicated from the race of hunting hind which he metaphorically describes as his beloved which is Anne Boleyn.
6: Despite of his excommunication from hunting the deer physically he is unable to excommunicate himself from the the thought of hunting metaphorically it defines the fact that even though his efforts of hunting were vain and travail he still wants to pursue his love for his beloved Anne Boleyn.
7: The next stanza describes us how he failed in pursuing his love despite his constant efforts he says that whenever she refuses Thomas's love she takes combines it with her pride ignoring the fact that how Hurt he is while constantly trying to pursue his love for her.
8: In the lines 9 and onwards Thomas challenges every single men out there to hunt the deer and warns them by saying just as my efforts efforts gained yours efforts will also be vained in the same manner , he says that hunting the deer is just like catching air in net. With this he metaphorically attributes that to pursue your love for Anne Boleyn is as difficult as it is to catch wind in a net.
9: In the line 11,12,13 and ,14 he attributes us the reason as why it is so difficult to hunt the deer or to pursue love for Anne Boleyn with the phrase "Noli me TANGERE" which means touch me not by this thomas compares her with Jesus (as after his death it was written on his neck touch me not as described in the Bible) in the next lines he reasoned why on her neck the above phrase is written beacuse she belongs to caesor.
10: Metaphorically king Henry VIII is compared to caesor as there were alot of similarities between them both of them were under debt and Various , both of them were the ones who spent royal treasures for their personal desires not the one of the publics'
BACKGROUND:
1: It is here to note that Anne Boleyn was one of the most beautiful women in the king's reign whom king Henry married for staisfying his personal desires .
2: Later in Thomas's writings it was revealed that how both of them were unhappy of their marriage and from some critiques it was conspired that Thomas and Anne Boleyn enjoyed an affair outside of Anne's marriage.
3: They were Anne Boleyn was unhappy in her marriage because she didn't Behaved in the submissive manner in which she was required to be , she had a voice and opinion of her own which she used to expressed very frequently due to this reason there were fights in the marriage and when Anne was unable to deliver an boy child to king due to some miscarriage he took this as an offense.
4: And married another woman and hence by some critiques it was conspired that Thomas had affair with Anne which we will discuss in my next blog.
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