Whoso List to Hunt
Introduction
Whoso list to hunt is a poem written by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The author did not publish most of his poems including whoso list to hunt. Whoso list to hunt is an imitation of the “Rime 190” .The poem was written by Petrarch in the 14th century. The author uses the poem to explain a hunt. In the poem a deer is being pursued by the narrator. In addition, the poem explains how the land owner owns the deer. “The Bait” is a poem written by John Donne. The poem includes various metaphysical features that form the main body of the poem.
The poem focuses on a beautiful woman to fish. It also analyzes men who are desperately waiting to be caught by the beautiful woman. The two poems are different and similar .For instance; the two poems explore similar themes like unsuccessful love. The poems have also used poetic devices to convey the message to the reader. The poems differ in terms of structure. This paper analyzes the “whoso list to hunt” poem and “the bait” poem. It compares and contrasts the two poems.
Discussion
Most scholars have given different views about the “whoso list to hunt” poem. Some believe that the poem is used to explain the relationship between King and the deer. The poem explains the courtship of the king and deer. The deer has become part of the king and she is considered the King’s property. The author refers to the deer as a royal property that is not supposed to be hunted by other people. In this case, female deer has become the King’s property and people should not pursue her as she belongs to the king alone.
Additionally, the content of the Petrarchan sonnet is similar to the content of the “whoso list to hunt”. The two poems focus on love. The “whoso list to hunt” explores the love between the narrator and the female deer. The author has shown that sonnets can concentrate on more than unrequited love. Unrequited love is love that cannot be reciprocated openly, though one needs one to reciprocate the love. The person being loved is not aware of the affections of the admirer (Mikics &Burt, 2010).
John explores love in his poem “the bait”. The author relates love and hunting of women love with fishing. The women and men go to fish while searching for their partners. In the first stanza the narrator invites his lover to come and live with him. The author uses pleasing language to explain the poem. In the second stanza, the author uses a less pleasant language to show the romantic world using fish as a symbol. In the third stanza, the poet has provides the reader with an image of the bait catching the fish. This is shown by the following quotation “… that live bath…”.In this stanza, the author claims that men take different directions to win the love of a woman like fish move from different direction. Men are happy when they win the love of a woman instead of receiving it. This is similar to a man who wants to catch the bait instead of being caught by the bait. In the fourth stanza, the author has depicted different types of tones.
For instance, he shows an agreeable tone and a disagreeable tone. The author analyzes how the pursuit to win a woman’s love changes the life of a man. Most men are not the same with the woman’s love or without the love. Most men see women an important necessity that makes them survive. In the fifth stanza, the author shows the negative effect of love. In the fifth stanza, men see women less important and beautiful when they fail to win them. The last stanza shows how men are tired from their unsuccessful hunting. The “Whoso list to hunt” poem and the bait poem are similar and different (Donne, 2009).
First, the “Whoso list to hunt” poem is different from “the bait” poem as it consists of fourteen lines and has a fixed format. In addition, the poem has a rhyme. The author was inspired by the Petrarchan sonnet to write his poem in such a format. The Petrarchan sonnet consists if fourteen lines. The author of the Petrarchan has used the first eight lines to state the problem the poem is analyzing. In addition, he has used the octave to analyze the problem. The last six lines are used to resolve the problem identified in the first eight lines. The author of “the whoso list to hunt” has used the first eight lines to describe the problem. In this case, the problem is unsuccessful love and hunting. In addition, he has used the last six lines to describe the solution to the problem.
The narrator has decided to show other hunters where the deer is as he is sure they are not able to catch her as she belongs to the king. Though Wyatt adapted the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet, he modified it to meet his needs. For example, the author ended his poem with two lines instead of six lines. The two lines at the end of the poem rhyme. On the other hand, the bait poem has more than 14 sentences. Also, the author of the bait poem has not provided the description of the problem in the first stanza and solution in the last stanza. Instead, the first few lines are used to show the fishing or pursuit process and the happiness. The author shows the problem men experience when hunting in the last stanza. Moreover, the author does not provide a solution to the problem like in the “whoso list to hunt”.
Further, the poems have similar themes. The two poems focus on failed love (Mikics &Burt, 2010).
The main theme in the poem “Whoso list to hunt” is unsuccessful love. The author analyzes how the love between the characters has failed. For instance, he analyzes the love between the king and the female character believed to be Anne. He also analyzes the love between Wyatt and the female character. The two kinds of love differ from one another. For instance, the love between the King and female character is successful. The two characters get along well and this makes it easy for the king to win the female character.
On the other hand, the love between the author and the female character is not successful. The female character and the author are not able to get along well and this hinders the author from winning her. The author loves the female character, but she does not realize and this leads to sadness. As a result, the author has decided to leave the hunt. This is evidenced by various lines in the poem. For instance in line1 of the poem, the narrator argues that he is aware of a particular female deer for those wishing to hunt. The narrator has already given up and he is trying to give other people a chance to try (Mikics &Burt, 2010).
There are various things that have forced the narrator to abandon the hunt. First, the narrator is disappointed with the hunting process and he sees it a useless process as evidenced by the quotation below “… the vain trail hath wearied me so sore” In addition, the hunting process has caused the narrator more harm than benefit as he is sad. In line fourth, the narrator claims that he is the last people to pursue the deer. This is shown by the quotation below “… that farthest cometh behind”.
The narrator faces numerous challenges when trying to hunt the deer. The deer proves to be fast than the narrator and this force him to leave the hunt. This is shown by the narrator’s remarks in the second stanza. The narrator states that he follows the female deer fainting. The narrator only manages to catch the passing wind instead of the deer. Though the narrator is giving up on hunting the deer, he cannot remove the deer from his tired mind as he loves her. The author of the bait explores failed love in the poem. The author has shown how men hunt women in the poem like fish. Though men use different tactics to hunt women, they are not able to succeed as they end up loosing. This leaves them with bad experience of the hunting process (Donne, 2009).
The two authors have used symbolism and metaphor in their work. Thomas has used symbolism and metaphor to convey the message to the reader. The author uses symbolism in the poem to show the deer and the hunter. For instance, the hind in the poem symbolizes his lover. The hunter in the poem refers to the narrator. The author has chosen the term the hind because it is a beautiful and hurried animal. Though the animal is beautiful and hurried, no person can get it easily. The narrator in the poem compares his lover with the hint and also compares himself with the hunter. Getting the hind is not easy because she is fast. This makes it easy for the narrator to relax as he is sure no hunter will ever get the hint as it made for the king. This is shown by the writings on her neck (Mikics &Burt, 2010).
Like Thomas, John has used symbolism and metaphor in the poem. First, the author compares the process of pursuing for love with fishing. Men and women pursue for love and move from direction to another like fish do. The author uses golden sand and crystals to symbolize the love the narrator will share with her lover. This is shown by the quotation below “ … some new pleasures prove of golden sands and crystal brook”
In addition, the author has metaphors to convey the message to the audience. The author uses fish to show the romantic world. The author compares the romantic world with fish in a river. Further, the author compares the warmth with the sun. He claims that the warmth is more superior to the sun. The fish when attracted by bait behave the same way as a response that is created by a woman’s beauty. This forces men to pursue the woman (Donne, 2009).
Conclusion
The “whoso list to hunt” and “the bait” are used to show the challenges men face when hunting women. The hunting process has more harm than benefit on men as men are left sad and tired. The two poems are similar as they convey the same message. In addition, the two poems have used various poetic devices like symbolism and metaphor. They are also different in terms of structure.
Reference
Donne,J.(2009).The Complete Poems of John Donne.Digireads.com Publishing
Mikics,D.,&Burt,S.(2010).The art of the sonnet. Harvard University Press
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