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whoso list to hunt - Coggle Diagram
whoso list to hunt
Context
Reneissance poetry, typically about courtly and unrequited love. 'Courtly love' put women on pedestals and glorified amorous passion.
Love poetry often alluded to the courtship of a women as a battleship to men, the surrender of the female and the victory of the male in winning his female prize through heroic actions.
Wyatt was inspired by Petrarch (father of Italian renaissance). The sonnet form began as a song sang in Medieval Italian taverns and became popular across Europe.
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Many of Wyatt's sonnets included complaints about love and its potential to cause mens' suffering. Often featuring an animal.
Wyatt was a courtier and diplomat in court of Henry 8. This gave him a powerful position especially in this era.
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It is suspected that Wyatt was having an affair with Anne Boleyn, which he was imprisoned for.
Link to Gatsby
The use of diamonds could represent wealth and beauty which shows he is objectifying her. Similarly Tom objectifies Myrtle and uses her for sexual purposes. 'he turned up in popular restraints with her, and leaving her at the table'. The word 'leaving' emphasises how she doesn't mean anything to him. Links to Gatsby and how he is focused on his status rather than loving her. Both see women as an accessory.
The speaker and Gatsby represent men as being powerful and how the want to maintain their status by using women. Daisy is used by Tom as an accessory and the way she wears white symbolise her as a canvas.
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Anne and Wyatt could represent Gatsby and Daisy. The speaker and Fitzgerald present men as wanting something that the woman doesn't. Gatsby never realises that he is persuing a woman that never wanted him and this is evident through his death, 'You can't repeat the past, he cried incredulously, why of course you can.' This highlights how Gatsby wants to go back in time to repeat the relationship and make it work.
'fainting i follow' - the speaker appears to be chasing her which may imply she's in control and this goes against the patriarchal expectations of the Elizabethan era. Similarly, Daisy has control over Gatsby an his obsession is evident through the way he brought his house in front of hers
Strcurre
Rhyme scheme
This rhyme scheme is repetitive and controlled and ordered suggesting the speaker writes from a point in time where he has since had the opportunity to reflect on his experience and gather his thoughts.
The use of repetitive rhyme scheme reflects the speaker's obsession and his numerous attempts to capture the 'dear/women'
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At the Volta, the rhyme scheme changes to the following detest CDDCEE. Represents change.The speaker stops talking about his chase but explains why the women is unattainable.
Meter
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The comma in the middle of the first line further disrupts the expected pentameter by creating a pause. This metrical confusion mirrors the confusion in the speaker's heart and mind.
The metre then stabilises, lines 2 and 3 conform to iambic pentameter. Stabilisation only temporary as line 4 contains an extra syllable which extends the line mirroring the slow hunt.
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Enjambment and ceasura
First 4 lines use caesura and end stopped lines lend the speaker's voice a matter of fact tone matching 'I know her is a hynde'
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Ceasura and end stopped lines resume in sestet. Journey suggests speaker has become lost in his thoughts and emotions while recounting the hunt but regains sense with Volta mirrored by a returned structure.
Themes
Love and loss
Extended metaphor of hunting describes love and courting as a violent sport. Almost equates violence with lust and sexuality, or suggests that the pursuit of love necessarily involves violence.
Poem leaves the speaker wondering what would happen if the dear was caught, metaphorically sexual violence?
Speaker often shows signs of frustration, possibly as a lack of sex. Although most deeply rooted in inability to catch the woman.'I seek to hold the wind' which signifies the impossibility of a union between the speaker and woman. Could allude to Wyatt watching Anne Boleyn progress up the ranks of being the King's wife.
Suggests that even with masculine threat of violence, female can't be tamed. Ambigious to whether the speaker has accepted that he can't have her and processed his lost. While he says 'leaves off' the hunt, realising the futility of his pursuit, he seems mentally stuck - 'may I by no means my wearied mind/ drawe from the Deere'. Is he still obsessed with the dear, although he has given up or does 'leaving off' relinquish his obsession over her?
Love in this poem is usually presented compared to the other poems as it seems violent. However the possible hint at enchantment through the lines 'yet may I by no means my wearied mind/ drawe from the first dear' parallels the 'fairy like figure in 'la belle dame sans merici' who seems to cast a spell over the knight.
Sexuality and violence
Sexuality is not overt in this poem. The speaker does not detail the women's physical charms, only a reference to her 'fair neck'. We can assume that the metaphor that it is about frustrated lust. The metaphor has two roles of predator and prey, which immediately sets us up to expect the poem to be about sexual conquest.
The poem may suggest that the female figure is above the violent sexuality presented by the stalking male. This is revealed both by her flight from the hunter and her (or her owner's) statement 'no lime tangier'. In this way the woman can be seen as presented as above the man in purity.
Unrequited love
Significant in this poem as the speaker is unable to capture the deer who he so desperately desires.
The deer is an extended metaphor for a women. This metaphor works well as it would have been relatable to the audience for whom Wyatt wrote. For the members of the court of henry 8, hunting was common practice and the king was especially fond of the sport. The frustration of the deer being just out of shot would have been very familiar.
The speaker is so devoted to the 'hind' to the point of mental and physical exhaustion , 'weried me so sore'. Wyatt implies that love is compulsive, it is animalistic and visceral. like the act of hunting.
The poem is unusual in its romantic term, it uses the theme of love as a function for a 'hunt', suggesting the attraction of love is the persuit of the woman. At the time, when women and men were very seperate and there was little to no contact between the two genders, it makes sense that there was a feeling o chasing down or working for a woman's attention.
Language
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Consonace anad assonance
Wyatt uses an abundance throughout. E.g: 'So sore, 'drawe from the Deere' and 'fainting I followe'.
The harsh sound of 'so sore' relays the speaker's pain, frustration and bitter attitude.
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"Who list her count, I put him owe of double' eg of consonance
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Critical responses
feminism
A modern feminist view might focus on the violence of the hunt and on the characterisation of the woman as a deer which infantalises or dehumanises her.
Gender is interesting in the poem as Wyatt proscribes strict gender rules to the characters: the female is given the status of an animal or even as the property of the rightful owner, and the male figure i given the task of conquering the fleeing female.
The woman however, refuses to be captured. Therefore she upsets the social expectations of the contemporary readership, subverting expectations of female submission and masculine dominance.
For the speaker then, men take an active role in relationships and the woman is submissive. The poem suggests that despite the female tendency o strive for autonomy and freedom, women will never truly be free.