Whoso List to Hunt
by Sir Thomas Wyatt
AP/H English 12
Dercher
Mini – Read
Reading Indicators
R.1.3.4
R.1.4.5
R.1.4.9
R.1.4.10
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
5 Yet may I, by no means, my wearied 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,
10 As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about,
“Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”
• Footnotes
list: archaic for “desires.”
hind (rhymes with kind): female deer
travail: hard work
put him out of doubt: assure him (that he).
“Noli me tangere”: Latin for “touch me not”
Remember Reading Strategy! Read once for the beauty and flow of the
language! Read twice and decide what you “get” versus “not get”:
paraphrase! Read a third time to select interesting word choices,
figurative language devices, rhetorical constructs, construction choices,
and mechanics.
Write your ideas down!
Create a theme statement!
Create a pool of terms that you could use to
discuss the sonnet!
Think: “This contributes to the writer’s ability
to convey or delivery the theme in this
way…
Analysis: Go beyond paraphrasing and
identification!
1. Which of the following images represents
the woman the speaker wants to pursue?
a. “The vain travail”
b. “diamonds in letters plain”
c. “the deer”
d. “my wearied mind”
2. The tone of this sonnet is
a. optimistic
b. resigned
c. neutral
d. patient
Petrarchan Sonnets
• Francesco Petraca, known in English as Francis
Petrarch (1304-1374)
• Sonnets to Laura (woman of ideal virtue and beauty)
• Unrequited love – sonnets speak of hopeless love
• Petrarchan Conceits – A fanciful and elaborate figure of
speech that makes a surprising connection between two
seemingly dissimilar things (metaphysical conceit).
• Iambic pentameter
• Organized in two unequal parts – Octave (first eight
lines) and Sestet (final six lines)
• Turn or reversal occurs usually between the two shifts