Whoso List To Hunt Analysis

Whoso List to Hunt, by Thomas Wyatt, describes the act of chasing after unrequited love. The poet relates this chase for love to the speaker hunting a female deer. With regards to the hunt, the speaker tiredly reflects upon his personal experience chasing the deer. The sonnet’s tone revels that the speaker reflects cheerlessly. Additionally, the poet describes the speaker’s fixation for unrequited love by showing the speaker progressively becoming less calm. Throughout this piece, Thomas Wyatt plays around with the English language to create double meanings within his sentences. For instance, the speaker at one point seems so against chasing the deer, however, the sentence rearrange exposes that the speaker is actually asking for permission
Consequently, the speaker begins to sound less calm as he searches for the reason for why he pursues this love. The poet suggests these complicated ideas in the following lines “Yet may I by no means my wearied mind/ Draw from the deer: but as she fleeth afore/ Fainting I follow.”(5-7&1/2). With regards to these lines, the poet arranged this sentence to produce a double meaning. Reading it line by line, the speaker seems to be so adamantly against chasing the deer. However, when reading this sentence from the subject to the verb on the next line, the speaker is asking if he is allowed to draw from the deer. Thus, these lines introduce the idea that the speaker wishes to rid his mind of this deer, however, it seems the speaker just can’t stop thinking about the deer. Furthermore, this sentence breaks the pattern held through previous sentences by ending in the middle of a line. Interestingly enough, the speaker just received sight of deer in the ending of the previous line. Immediately following this initial sight is the phrase “Fainting I follow.” Therefore, the poet emphasizes the power the deer has over the speaker’s mind by dragging his thought onto the following line. On the other hand, the end rhyme held between “afore” and “therefore” in line six and seven embodies a cause and effect idea where the speaker is trying to rationalize his reasoning for chasing the deer. Specifically,
He suggest that the message should stop most people from chasing the deer in the following lines: “Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am;/ And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”(13-14). With regards to line thirteen, this line contains eleven syllables as opposed to ten to emphasize Caesar’s power. Essentially, the poet shows that Caesar has enough power to disregard the sonnet’s form. Therefore, Caesar’s name should intimidate the speaker, however, the speaker stated earlier that he just gave up chasing the deer. Thus, the speaker originally believed that chasing this love is worth risking his life. However, the speaker gives up since catching a deer owned by Caesar is impossible. Caesar could represent a man who can provide someone with anything they desire. How could the speaker compete with a man like Caesar? Additionally, the words “am” and “tame” share a similar vowel sound. When put to together, these words give the sonnet a sense of closure for the speaker. Essentially, the speaker announces that he is content with giving up on catching the deer. On the other hand, this rhyme describes the deer’s ownership. However, since this rhyme is imperfect, the connection between the two words produces the idea that the deer is not completely caught. Lastly, these lines are a couplet. For this reason, the poet emphasizes the relationship held between Caesar and the deer.