Thomas wyatt sonnets
- •
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
English poet and diplomat (1503–1542)
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542)[1] was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was originally from Yorkshire. His family adopted the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses. His mother was Anne Skinner, and his father Henry, who had earlier been imprisoned and tortured by Richard III, had been a Privy Councillor of Henry VII and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509.
Thomas followed his father to court after his education at St John's College, Cambridge. Entering the King's service, he was entrusted with many important diplomatic missions. In public life, his principal patron was Thomas Cromwell, after whose death he was recalled from abroad and imprisoned (1541). Though subsequently acquitted and released, shortly thereafter he died. His poems were circulated at court and may have been publish
- •
Sir Thomas Wyatt is appreciated today principally for his poetry. In his own time, however, as well as producing some of the best poetry of the sixteenth century, he was active in the King’s service and led a very dangerous life. As foreign emissary for Henry VIII he could be seen as the James Bond of his time. Yet the danger he lived under emanated not so much from his missions abroad as from his membership of King Henry’s court. It was as if Bond had more to fear from ‘M’ than from Dr. No.
Being a member of Henry VIII’s court came with a serious health warning. The King grew increasingly egotistical and paranoid and, in his mind, friends could become foes and loyalty become treachery at the flick of his finger. The court was a place of plotting and intrigue between bitter rival factions, each spreading innuendo and calculated falsehood with the aim of trying to influence the King and gain advantage over the others. The phrase ‘heads will roll’ could have been coined to sum up the ethos of Henry’s court. And Wyatt was right in the middle of it.
Thomas Wyatt was born in
- •
Biography
| Sir Thomas Wyatt |
Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder was an accomplished diplomat and Renaissance poet well known for his influence on the development of the sonnet. During his lifetime, his poems were circulated in manuscript form to members of the king’s court but were not officially published until after his death. In 1557, ninety-six of his poems were published in an anthology which included works by Surrey, another influential writer of the time. Along with the Earl of Surrey, Wyatt is credited with the introduction of the sonnet to the English language. His poems were mostly concerned with love and his lovers, many of which were based on sonnets by Petrarch. His most famous poems are “Whoso List to Hunt,” “They Flee From Me,” “What No, Perdie,” “Lux, My Fair Falcon,” and “Blame Not My Lute.” Wyatt also wrote three satires in which he adopted the Italian terza rima into English (“Thomas Wyatt,” 2013). Although he lived many years ago,
Copyright ©hubdebt.pages.dev 2025