Analysis Of Whoso List To Hunt

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Pursuing love is no different than hunting a deer. Both Lovers and hunters chase after something; they both desire success. However, there comes a time where both hunters and lovers do not catch what they are chasing; they must decide whether to give up or not. Sir Thomas Wyatt creates this very moment in Whoso List to Hunt. Within this sonnet, the poet explains the hunt for unrequited love in terms of the speaker hunting a female deer. The sonnet’s tone reveals that the speaker questions whether to give up or not. Furthermore, the poet captures the tension held between the speakers goal to give up on this love and his desire to continue to pursue it . Thomas Wyatt does this by playing around with the English language to create double meanings …show more content…

Strangely enough, the speaker’s advice makes the reader wonder why he wanted to give out deer’s location if nobody can catch it. The speaker gives out this statement in the following lines: “ Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,/ As well as I may spend his time in vain.” (9-10). The poet arranges this sentence to specifically deliver this message to all the hunters and a possible singular person. For instance, line nine zones in on the speaker stating that “he puts him out of doubt.” This shifts the message toward an individual since the word “him” is a singular pronoun. However, when reading this sentence from the subject to the verb, the speaker stresses that anyone who goes after the deer will without a doubt spend their time in vain like him. Why would the speaker reveal the location of this deer if he is telling all hunters there is no chance for them to catch it? For this reason, the deer must be incompletely caught. The clause “ I put him out of doubt” shows that the possible singular owner has doubts if he has caught the deer as well. Thus, the speaker announces this uncertain topic with unjustifiable certainty; the speaker refuses to give up his spot in hunting the deer at this

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