I FIND NO PEACE BY SIR THOMAS WYATT

POEM INTRODUCTION:

‘I Find no Peace’ sonnet by Sir Thomas Wyatt was a translation of Petrarch’s sonnet 104 written by Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374). As a love sonnet, it consists of 14 lines in which all kind of emotions and miseries were dealt by mind and soul that are related with love. The poet expresses the sufferings of being in love, in diametrically opposed images and his conflicting struggles within himself. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDDC EE.

POEM:

I find no peace, and all my war is done.

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.

I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;

And nought I have, and all the world I season.

That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison

And holdeth me not—yet can I scape no wise—

Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,

And yet of death it giveth me occasion.

Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.

I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.

I love another, and thus I hate myself.

I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;

Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,

And my delight is causer of this strife.

POEM SUMMARY:

The poet says that he finds no calmness within himself. Although his fight with the world has ended his fight within himself hasn’t. He fears, yet is still hopeful; he burns and still remains as frozen water and he flies high above the wind yet hasn’t emerged above the surface. He says that he has nothing to hold yet he clasps the whole world around him. His love neither frees his soul nor imprisons him nor holds him tight. Yet he remains insane to it (he willfully doesn’t escape from this misery). It doesn’t let him die nor live but it gives occasionally pain like death. He became senseless; he sees without eyes and speaks without tongue. He wants to die yet he asks for health. He hates himself for the fact he loves another (this maybe due to the failure of his love reciprocation). He consumes himself in misery and laughs at his own pain. Like him his life and death also upsets him. This eternal suffering is the result of his pursuit for delight (love).