Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Poems published 1557
I find no peace, and all my war is done
1 I find no peace, and all my war is done.
2 I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.
3 I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;
4 And nought I have, and all the world I season.
5 That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison
6 And holdeth me not--yet can I scape no wise--
7 Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,
8 And yet of death it giveth me occasion.
9 Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.
10 I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.
11 I love another, and thus I hate myself.
12 I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;
13 Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,
14 And my delight is causer of this strife.
The long love that in my thought doth harbour
1 The longë love that in my thought doth harbour
2 And in mine hert doth keep his residence,
3 Into my face presseth with bold pretence
4 And therein campeth, spreading his banner.
5 She that me learneth to love and suffer
6 And will that my trust and lustës negligence
7 Be rayned by reason, shame, and reverence,
8 With his hardiness taketh displeasure.
9 Wherewithall unto the hert's forest he fleeth,
10 Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry,
11 And there him hideth and not appeareth.
12 What may I do when my master feareth
13 But in the field with him to live and die?
14 For good is the life ending faithfully.
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind
1 Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
2 But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
3 The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
4 I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
5 Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
6 Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
7 Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
8 Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
9 Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
10 As well as I may spend his time in vain.
11 And graven with diamonds in letters plain
12 There is written, her fair neck round about:
13 Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
14 And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
Poems published in 1557
The soote season
1 The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
2 With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale.
3 The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
4 The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
5 Summer is come, for every spray now springs.
6 The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
7 The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
8 The fishes float with new repaired scale;
9 The adder all her slough away she slings;
10 The swift swallow pursueth the flies small;
11 The busy bee her honey now she mings.
12 Winter is worn, that was the flowers' bale.
13 And thus I see among these pleasant things,
14 Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
Love, that doth reign and live within my thought
1 Love, that doth reign and live within my thought,
2 And built his seat within my captive breast,
3 Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,
4 Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.
5 But she that taught me love and suffer pain,
6 My doubtful hope and eke my hot desir
7 With shamefast look to shadow and refrain,
8 Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire.
9 And coward Love then to the heart apace
10 Taketh his flight, where he doth lurk and plain,
11 His purpose lost, and dare not show his face.
12 For my lord's guilt thus faultless bide I pain,
13 Yet from my lord shall not my foot remove:
14 Sweet is the death that taketh end by love.
Sources:
Wyatt’s poems: RPO: Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto, poem text in the public domain.
Surrey’s poems: Adapted from Bonnie J. Robinson and Laura Getty, Laura, “British Literature I: Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century and Neoclassicism" (2018). English Open Textbooks. 17.
https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/17. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.