Sir Thomas Wyatt

Whoso List to Hunt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, 

But as for me, helas! I may no more. 
The vain travail hath worried me so sore, 
I am of them that furthest come behind. 
Yet may I by no means, my worried mind 
Draw from the deer; but as she fleeth afore 
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, 
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. 
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, 
As well as I, may spend his time in vain; 
And graven in diamonds in letters plain 
There is written, her fair neck round about, 
"Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild to hold, though I seem tame." 

Given the background information, who is the hind in this sonnet and who is Caesar?

“Whoso List to Hunt” is a Petrarchan sonnet written by Sir Thomas Wyatt. It is partially a translation
and partially an imitation of Francesco Petrarch’s Sonnet 190. It was likely written in the 1530s or
1540s, making it one of the first sonnets written in English. It is thus an important precursor to some
of the most significant poems in the history of English literature, including Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Like those poems, “Whoso List to Hunt” is about love; its speaker describes love as a desperate and
violent pursuit, in which a man attempts to hunt down the woman he loves. This pursuit has failed, so
the speaker spends the poem explaining why he is giving up the hunt.

Ceasar is the King and the hind is the wife of the king.

What warning does the speaker give potential hunters of the woman?

That she is marked, that she has an owner and that owner is the king.

1. What are the connotations of the word hunt in line 1?

"Whoso List to Hunt" opens with a bold pronouncement from its speaker: if anyone out there wants
("lists") to go hunting, he knows where you can find a deer ("an hind"). The poem thus addresses its
readers directly: the speaker seems to be inviting the reader to join the hunt. Through this use of
apostrophe, the speaker positions his poem as a public statement: he is speaking to a broad, general
audience, making a pronouncement.

2. I may no more: why has the poet tired of the chase? What words does he use to convey his
tiredness?

„In a net I seek to hold the wind…” He is trying to catch the wind on a net,but ut he is tired .
3. How does the poet express his continuing obsession?

He can't stop thinking about her; his mind, though tired, keeps hunting no matter what. Indeed, the
task itself is pointless: it is, he notes in line 8, like trying to catch the wind in a net. Yet he continues
to pursue her, even to the point of “fainting”—even, that is, if doing so harms him physically. In this
sense, unrequited love is portrayed as dangerous, obsessive, and frustrating.

4. Explain the image in a net I seek to hold the wind.

He is trying to catch the wind on a net,but ut he is tired .

5. The sonnet appears to change directions at the ninth line. How does the subject matter of the
last six lines differ from the rest?

Wyatt makes use of enjambment and caesura across lines six and seven to highlight the discord
represented by the end of the relationship as he subverts and challenges his own chosen structure.