I am constantly amazed at how words can speak across centuries, and maybe even millennia… There are good people, and there are others who are the opposite, there are honest and noble people – ordinary folk, and then there are vile and evil people who do indescribable things. But the good people, the people who are faithful and loving, who love and honour, who respect and dream, I am sure they are in the majority.
Thomas Wyatt speaks clearly to us across the five hundred years since he was born, he speaks of love and he uses imagery which springs into life in our imaginations.
The long love that in my heart doth harbour
And in mine heart doth keep his residence,
Into my face presseth with bold pretense,
And there campeth, displaying his banner.
She that me learneth to love and to suffer,
And wills that my trust and lust’s negligence
Be reined by reason, shame, and reverence,
With his hardiness taketh displeasure.
Wherewith love to the heart’s forest he fleeth,
Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry,
And there him hideth and not appeareth.
What may I do when my master feareth
But in the field with him to live and die?
For good is the life ending faithfully.
Lois Elsden 