A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hunting By Thomas Wyatt

Wyatt compares his love to a deer in “Whoso list to hunt?” to portray young men pursuing an alluring woman at the king’s court. The speaker first asks if anyone would “list” or want to hunt because he knows where a “hind” or lovely lady is. The speaker sounded as though he knew had already lost the chase of the “hind” and is tired of trying in lines two and three, “But for me, alas, I may no more. / The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,” (649).The speaker doesn’t want to just give up because he explained in lines six and seven he says, “as she fleeth afore, / Fainting I follow,” which shows that even though he knows he can’t have her, whenever he stops pursuing her, he just starts chasing her again. He also compares trying to catch her

to catching wind in a net in line eight, “Since in a net I seek to hold the wind” (649). The poem gives a broader account of love by possibly referring to Anne Boleyn. He said that the “hind” already had an owner and wore a diamond collar saying “Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,” (649). The Latin phrase means “Touch me not, for I am Caesar’s.” Wyatt was rumored to be romantically involved with Anne Boleyn and it is possible he was referring to her in this poem. King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were married around this time, so it is very likely that Wyatt was comparing King Henry the VIII to Caesar because Wyatt could no longer chase Anne Boleyn if she was married to Henry the VIII.