Monday, March 2, 2009
" I Find No Peace"
Sir Thomas Wyatt seems to like to write about love and life. In his poem " I Find No Peace" I can not help to wonder if that is what all of the current soldiers getting back from War still feel. I find line 3 to be rather oppressed: "I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise" the speaker of this poem seems to be questioning his abilities Can I not arise, above the wind? Even if he does everything right and flys high will he still survive? However, I also believe that maybe this poem has nothing to do with war, but rather the war and fight in his life. Maybe he is fighting an illness or maybe he is battling love. Or maybe he just hates himself for something he did: "I love another, and thus I hate myself" (line 11) therefore, was he married and maybe committed adultry but can not live with himself or his guilt for doing this. Poems can be interpreted many different ways and because of this I can not seem to only come up with one answer.
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It is a troubling poem: and I get the soldier connection. It is a poem (I think you're right) about war and peace. Inner war and peace, too. It's all contradictory -- "I fear and hope" (2). And it makes sense that not being certain is not-peaceful.
ReplyDeleteLine 11 could also be interpreted as... when you love someone, you do hate yourself (because if you loved yourself, you wouldn't put yourself through this pain.) Yes, that's twisted. Maybe I like your idea of adultery and guilt better: it's his "delight" in it that has caused all these problems ("strife") -- line 14.
But you're right that poems -- especially sonnets -- can be interpreted in many, each perfectly legitimate, ways.