The best poems by Thomas Wyatt selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) is that rare thing: both of interest from a historical perspective (he lived through one of the most interesting periods of English history) and genuinely innovative and stylistically accomplished. Here are ten […]
A summary of a classic early sonnet Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote the earliest sonnets in English, and was a key figure in English Renaissance poetry. ‘The Pillar Perished’, as the sonnet beginning ‘The pillar perish’d is whereto I leant’ is sometimes known, is one of the most widely anthologised of […]
A summary of a classic poem The story of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s possible romantic involvement with Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, is a drama all in itself. But what is remarkable about Wyatt’s poetry – especially ‘They Flee from Me’ – is the way he dramatises life […]
The interesting life of the Renaissance poet Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) was one of the most accomplished English poets of the Renaissance. Writing over half a century before Shakespeare, Wyatt helped to popularise Italian verse forms, most notably the sonnet, in Tudor England. In this post we offer a very […]
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Sir Thomas Wyatt’s ‘Whoso List to Hunt’ is one of the earliest sonnets in all of English literature. What follows is the poem, followed by a brief introduction to, and analysis of, the poem’s language and imagery – as well as its surprising connections […]