Thomas Wyatt was one of the first from England to use the sonnet form. Because of this his sonnets follow the form that was first developed in Italy by the poet Petrarch. Wyatt's fourteenth sonnet, "My galley charged with Forgetfulness" likewise follows this petrarchan sonnet form. One of the principle practices of this period was that of imitation, where one poet would imitate the form or themes of other poets. This is what Wyatt did in borrowing this petrarchan form. Like most petrarchan sonnets, this one is composed of an octet followed by a sestet. The rhyme scheme of the octet is the conventional, ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme, while Wyatt alters the form of the sestet from the early petrarchan sonnets as it follows a CDDC EE rhyme scheme. Also, as in nearly all poems, he uses iambic pentameter. This pattern of alternating weak and strong syllables is particularly useful in this poem as it resembles the rise and fall of a ship, which is the main image in the sonnet.
Wyatt further imitates Petrarch by using the petrarchan idea of women and love. The petrarchan love convention is one in which the writer (a man, as basically all writers were during the Renaissance period) expresses his misery over the unrequited love of a woman. Many of the poems using the petrarchan love convention describe the woman and the negative way in which she turns down the advances of the man. In this particular sonnet, however, Wyatt is focusing