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Decent Essays

“Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt and “Sonnet 67” by Edmund Spenser are sonnets that are very similar at a first glance, but delving deeper, a difference can be found. Both of these sonnets use imagery and figures of speech relating to the hunt of an unobtainable woman as well as that central theme. Through a deeper analysis it is revealed that these two authors have a different interpretation of this failed hunt. A comparison and contrast of “Whoso List to Hunt” and “Sonnet 67” reveals that they are very similar through the analysis of their imagery and theme, but a look at the tone, reveals a different view on the problems faced in by these two speakers. “Whoso List to Hunt” shows an unobtainable woman represented as a deer, …show more content…

As he describes these escapades, he says “The vain travail hath wearied me so sore” (Wyatt, 3). This reinforces the theme by showing how much long he has been fighting to get her. Later on, the narrator is once again lamenting his impossible quest: “Since in a net I seek to hold the wind” (Wyatt, 8). By giving us this statement, it shows how fruitless the speaker’s hopes are. This theme is also prominent in Spenser’s “Sonnet 67”. As the narrator describes his love life he says, “Seeing the game from him escaped away” (Spenser, 2) showing how unobtainable this woman truly is. Later on the speaker supports the theme again, by saying “So, after long pursuit and vain assay” (Spenser, 5). On the speaker’s journey, he has attempted to get his girl, but each time it never works. These two poems are quite similar as they both have the same theme. Even though they seem to almost be the same poem, there is one big difference within the poems. The two poems have a very different tone, with Wyatt’s being much more clingy and stubborn, while Spenser’s being more contemplative and realistic. In “Whoso List to Hunt” the narrator is much clingier: “Fainting I follow” (Wyatt, 7). Even though this woman will never take him in, he still pushes on and refuses to let go. Similarly, he supports this by saying, “Yet by no means my wearied mind/Draw from the deer” (Wyatt, 5-6). The narrator has obviously been trying to court her for awhile and even though

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