Thomas Wyatt

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) was an English courtier and poet.

Quotes

• Forget not yet the tried intent
  Of such a truth as I have meant;
  My great travail so gladly spent,
  Forget not yet!
  • "Forget Not Yet"

• And wilt thou leave me thus?
  Say nay! say nay! for shame!
  To save thee from the blame
  Of all my grief and grame.
  And wilt thou leave me thus?
  Say nay! say nay!
  • "And Wilt Thou Leave Me"

• Behold love, thy power how she despiseth:
  My great pain, how little she regardeth
  The holy oath, whereof she taketh no cure
  Broken she hath: and yet she bideth sure
  Right at her ease, and little she dreadeth.
  • "Behold Love, thy Power"

• My lute, awake! perform the last
    Labour that thou and I shall waste,
  And end that I have now begun;
    For when this song is sung and past,
    My lute, be still, for I have done.
  • "My Lute, Awake"

• What should I say?
  Since Faith is dead,
  And Truth away
  From you is fled?
  • "What Should I Say"

• Can ye say nay,
  But that you said
  That I alway
  Should be obeyed?
  And thus betrayed,
  Or that I wist!
  Farewell, unkist!
  • "What Should I Say"

• They flee from me that sometime did me seek
  With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
  I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
  That now are wild, and do not remember
  That sometime they have put themselves in danger
  To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
  Busily seeking with a continual change.
  • "They Flee from Me"

• When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
  And she me caught in her arms long and small,
  "Therewith all sweetly did me kiss
  And softly said: "Dear heart, how like you this?"
  • "They Flee from Me"

• And I have leave to go, of her goodness;
  And she also to use new-fangleness.
  • "They Flee from Me"

• Whoso list to hunt? I know where is an hind!
  • "Whoso List to Hunt"

• Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt
  As well as I, may spend his time in vain!
  And graven with diamonds, in letters plain,
  There is written her fair neck round about:
    "Noli me tangere; for Cæsar’s I am,
    And wild for to hold, though I seem tame."
  • "Whoso List to Hunt"

• I cannot * * * say that Pan
  Passeth Apollo in music manyfold;
  Praisé Sir Thopas for a noble tale,
  And scorn the story that the Knighté told.
  • In Henry Morley, Burlesque Plays and Poems (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1885) p. 5. See also American Notes and Queries (28 September 1889) p. 257

External links

• G. F. Nott (ed.) The Works of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey and of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, vol. 2 (London: T. Bensley, for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1816)
• A. K. Foxwell (ed.) The Poems of Sir Thomas Wiat, vol. 1 (O of London P, 1913)
• The Poetical Works by Sir Thomas Wyatt (Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Co, 1880)
• Devonshire MS.