Deconstruction and Literary Device: "I Find No Peace"

Deconstruction and Literary Device: I Find No Peace by Sir Thomas Wyatt

By: Akshara George, Rafia Sethi, Mahnoor Khan, Masooma Hussain and Abrielle Noronha

            The poem “I Find No Peace” written by Sir Thomas Wyatt is an actual English translation of a Petrarchan sonnet. Just like any other Wyatt or Petrarchan poem, this poem is also about love. The theme of the poem defines the restlessness and confusion about love within the speaker himself. Love can make a person feel sorrow, pain, joy and confusion. It is possible that the speaker is talking about some sort of forbidden love, considering the time period of the poem.

            During the time of Renaissance, when people started to value love more than possessions, they often ended up with lovers. Even though the arts and sciences were reformed, the society was not entirely reformed. People still condemned the idea of love before marriage or having mistresses. This is potentially the main reason why majority of Wyatt’s poems were about love and heartbreak. He was very handsome and talented causing him to have many lovers or mistresses who eventually left him with pain.

            The title of the poem foreshadows how he does not find peace while he is in love. The tone of the poem identifies the speaker in some sort of mental conflict. It paints a picture of the speaker being emotionally imprisoned by this conflict. The speaker uses a lot of contradictory concepts to express his ambiguous state of mind. Therefore, the major poetic devices used in this poem are obviously oxymoron and paradox.

“ I Find no peace, and all my war is done.

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.”

The first verse implies that all his struggles are gone yet he cannot find peace. This line can also allude to his role as a soldier. Though his role as a soldier or a diplomat has retired, there is still the war of love waging inside of him. The second verse explains that love makes him fear yet gives him hope. He compares himself to ice and uses the opposites “burn and freeze” to highlight the confusion of his love for this particular person.

“I fly above the wind, yet I cannot arise;

And nought I have, and all the world I season.”

The speaker is implying that love makes him feel like flying and soaring into the sky however there is still that heaviness that is tying him down. The fourth verse translates to, he has nothing but still has the whole world. Again, it is a paradox where he is trying to explain love makes him feel empty yet full.

“That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison

And holdeth me not –yet can I scape no wise-

Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,

And yet of death it giveth me occasion.”

The speaker uses over exaggeration and explains that they there is nothing in this world that is strong enough to lock him down or imprison him, but when it comes to his ambiguity with love there is no escape. He feels like his love does not let him live or die at his own choice, that death would give him a better escape or a new opportunity were his is not carrying around this burden of confusion.

“Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.

I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.

I love another, and thus I hate myself.”

Yet again the speaker uses hyperbole to express that he can see without his eyes and speak without his tongue. He wishes to die however he also wishes for strength to live. As he says “I love another, and thus I hate myself.” The verse reflects on the theme of rejection from his beloved. In order to make that significant person love him, he must also do things which causes him to hate himself. He is afraid of being not worthy enough for that special person.

“I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;

Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,

And my delight is causer of this strife.”

He celebrates his sorrow and enjoys his pain and this is very ironic since it is not usual that anyone finds joy when they are hurt or in pain. He defines his life using the oxymoron living death and furthermore, his delight is the cause of his pain. His is comparing love as his delight, since that is his greatest pleasure, yet it has become his struggle.

Therefore this poem is not only an example of literature during that time, but it is also an example of what it is like to love someone.