Poetry (1) by Thomas Wyatt

PRIMARY SOURCE: (1557)

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes” 
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”

Context

• Publication: Wyatt was born c. 1503 to a Privy Councillor and Tudor loyalist. Wyatt studied at St. Johns College, Cambridge.  He married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Lord Cobham, c. 1520, though he divorced her c. 1525 on charges of adultery--around the same time he seems to have interested in Anne Boelyn. Asked to translate Petrarch in 1527, around the same time Henry VIII was interested in Anne Boelyn. Committed briefly to the Fleet for a brawl with the Sergeants of London in 1534. Imprisoned  to the Tower, probably as an ally of Anne, upon Suffolk's suggestion in 1536. After diplomatic missions 1539-40' is arrested in 1541 for association with Cardinal Pole. After a long life of public office in Kent, Wyatt is seized with fever after hard riding and dies at Sherbone. Wyatt's poetry circulated in manuscript, then published in A Booke of Ballets and Certain Psalms. Richard Tottel published 47 of Surrey's poems alongside 90 by Wyatt in the 1557 Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Wyatt's early adoption of the sonnet, his role in politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs.

Content

• Form:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Roughly a Shakespearean sonnet, variable meter.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Iambic trimeter, eight-line stanza, ababacac.

• Genre:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Petrarchan boat poem.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: Petrarchan lament

• Conceit:

1. “My galy charged with forgetfulnes”: Sailing-by-starlight metaphor for a Stoic lament.
2. “Marvaill no more all tho”: A synesthetic inventory of lament results in an aestheticized sadness, and thanks to Fortune for the song.

Poetry by Henry Howard

PRIMARY SOURCE:

• "I never saw my lady lay apart"
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green"
• "London! hast thou accused me"
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest" 

Context

• Publication: Surrey was born eldest son of Thomas Howard and Elizabeth Stafford (daughter to Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), entitled Earl of Surrey at age 7 when his father ascended to Duke of Norfolk upon his father's death, and raised alongside Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, from age 12. Surrey spent a year at the French court, returning for Anne Boelyn's wedding. Surrey wed Frances de Vere, daughter to the Earl of Oxford, in 1532. The Seymours conspired against Surrey at court, eventually resulting in Surrey's imprisonment in Windsor. He returned to favor, but was imprisoned in Fleet for drunken rioting, where he composed "London hast thou accused me." Despite his service in war, the Seymours won a campaign to have Surrey convicted of treason. Among other reasons, Surrey displayed the royal quarterings on his shield. Surrey's poetry circulated in manuscript long after his death, and Richard Tottel published 47 of them alongside 90 by Wyatt in the Miscellany. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars have been interested in Surrey's early adoption of the sonnet, in his Ovidianism, his erotic politics, and in his use of heraldry.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, sonnets, songs, heraldry.

Content

• Form:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Iambic pentameter. Shakespearean rhyme scheme.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Iambic pentameter. abab
• "London! hast thou accused me": Iambic tetrameter. abab
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Iambic pentameter. abab
• Genre:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": Sonnet.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": Lover's lament.
• "London! hast thou accused me": Satiric jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": Elegy and encomium.
• Conceit:
• "I never saw my lady lay apart": The speaker can't see his Petrarchan lover through her hairpiece.
• "The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green": A pathetic environment mourns the speaker's spurning by his lady.
• "London! hast thou accused me": The speaker hides his unruly behavior with a feigned jeremiad.
• "Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest": The speaker anatomizes Wyatt's corpse to praise his virtues.