Farewell, love, and all thy laws forever,

Thomas Wyatt, Sir Thomas Wyatt, was the sort of man who could only have existed in a certain age. He was only thirty-nine when he died, and yet in his life he excelled in almost every thing he touched. He was a true renaissance man, soldier, politician, diplomat, poet, and more than that, handsome and imposing.His father, Henry,  was an adviser to Henry VIII, and Thomas also served the king and was involved in the petitioning of the pope to annul Henry’s first marriage.

Even if you knew nothing about Thomas, his words speak across the centuries in a way which is really remarkable. He is credited with revolutionising English poetry, particularly the sonnet. Reading any of his work is like listening to someone who has really experienced the whole gamut of human feelings. Here he is casting away a lover who has been torturing him… and how many of us have felt like that! Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more… That happens to our emotions today just as it did to Thomas’s; in blind error when I did persever… Many of us have continued in a hopeless pursuit of an unrequited love; thy sharp repulse that pricketh aye so sore… Hurtful words from someone adored is much worse than what an enemy might say!

In looking at Wyatt’s work, and at this sonnet, I have found that in some versions the last two lines are missing, which would make a more conventional sonnet.

Farewell, love, and all thy laws forever,
Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more.
Senec and Plato call me from thy lore
To perfect wealth, my wit for to endeavor.
In blind error when I did persever,
Thy sharp repulse that pricketh aye so sore
Taught me in trifles that I set no store,
But scape forth, since liberty is lever.
Therefore, farewell, go trouble younger hearts,
And in me claim no more authority;
With idle youth go use thy property,
And thereon spend thy many brittle darts.
For hitherto though I have lost my time,
Me list no longer rotten boughs to climb.
My destiny to behold her doth me lead,
Yet do I know I run into the gleed