Who so list to hount Flashcards
Who wrote the poem and when?
Thomas Wyatt Was n the 1530’s or 40’s
What themes are prevalent in this poem?
Love vs lust, sex and violence, unrequited love, masculinity
Who was Thomas Wyatt?
•Wyatt was a courtier and diplomat in the court of Hengry VIII
•This gave him a powerful position which was elevated by his career as a poet in the early renaissance era due the renewed appreciation of art
Who is the poem about?
•Suspected that the poem is based on and alludes to an affair Wyatt had with Anne Boleyn which he was imprisoned for in may 1563
Why was the literary context of the time important?
•Love poetry in this era was typically about courtly and unrequited love
•Courtly love put women in pedestals and glorified amorous passion in a way that was anathema (hated) to both classical civilization and Christian salvation
•Love poetry often alluded to the courtship of a woman as a battlefield for men, the surrender of the female and the victory of the male in winning his female prize through heroic acts
•courtly love evolved over the centuries
How does Wyatt respond to courtly love in his poem?
•He critiques the concept of masculine pursuit within the confines of courtly love
•Courtly love was a dominant cultural ideal during the Renaissance
•Courtly love often idealized the male lover’s devotion to an unattainable woman, with the lover enduring suffering and self-sacrifice
•Wyatt’s poem, likely reflecting his unrequited love for Anne Boleyn, positions masculinity in the context of a futile and painful pursuit (encapsulated in the metaphor of hunting)
•The speaker likens his desire to a hunt for a “hind,” symbolizing an elusive woman, suggesting that male agency in love is constrained by external forces like the lady’s power and social status
What does the poem reflect contextually?
•Contextually, the poem reflects the broader Renaissance tension between the ideals of chivalric love and the increasing skepticism toward such notions, particularly in the wake of the growing political turbulence of the Tudor court
“Whoso list to hount, I know where is an hynde, But as for me, hélas, I any no more”
•Throughout the poem, Wyatt uses a conceit reflective of hunting as the process of courting a woman or desiring her
•Begins with a hearty exhortation
•The speaker offers a lady to the reader almost like a challenge. This reflects the poem’s patriarchal context in which women were merely seen as property
Who was Wyatt inspired by and how did he adapt his form for the poem?
•Italian poet Petrarch
•Wyatt adapts the traditional form to express personal conflict and frustration, likely rooted in his own experiences within the Tudor court.
“The vayne travail hath wearied me so sore”
•the previous invitation for the speaker to come hunt becomes ironic, as the speaker quickly reveals his disillusionment
• He admits that he is “wearied” by his own futile pursuit
The hunt becomes a symbol of unattainable desire, suggesting that love is not a source of fulfillment but of exhaustion and despair for the speaker which could perhaps be reflective of the battlefield of courtship that was common at the time
“Who do list to hount, I put him owte of doubt”
•Speaker reveals the futility of the hunt
•Challenges his own exhortation in the first line
“Graven with diamonds in letters plain/ There is written, her fair neck round”
•Graveb is a harsh verb as it describes indenting an object.”
•In this way it Implies that the ‘hynde’ is an object
•This reveals she belongs to someone of seniority
•The woman is trapped in a beautiful cage
“Noil me tangere, for Cesar’s I am”
•The notion of unattainability is further emphasized by the collar inscribed with “Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am.”
• A Latin phrase, meaning “Do not touch me, for I belong to Caesar”
• This implies that the woman is not only unattainable but also forbidden
•likely alluding to Wyatt’s rumored love for Anne Boleyn, who was claimed by King Henry VIII
•The deer’s allegiance to “Caesar” elevates her to a level of divine or royal ownership, reinforcing her inaccessibility and adding a layer of danger to the speaker’s pursuit
•Through this metaphor, Wyatt critiques the oppressive nature of love within a courtly context, where power and politics overshadow genuine emotional connection
What does the conceit of the Hynde mean?
•The imagery of the “hind” (a female deer) reinforces the idea of unrequited love as the creature embodies an idealized yet elusive object of affection
•The hind is beautiful and desirable but ultimately out of reach, reflecting the speaker’s frustration with a love that he cannot attain due to the political and social barriers between them
•Overall the hind is not autonomous to make her own decisions instead she is owned by Cesar
How can the poem be viewed as lustful?
•The conceit in the poem creates two roles of predator and prey
•The speaker could be speaking of sexual conquest
•The competitive aspect of the hunt shown in the words “I am of them that farthest cometh behind” which recalls a misogynist tone
