Virtual period «I Find no Peace» BY SIR THOMAS WYATT

In Literature, we were given as a virtual period task, the following:

I Find no Peace BY SIR THOMAS WYATT

I find no peace, and all my war is done.

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

I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;

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

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.

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.

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.

Answer

1-What situation is the speaker reflecting on?

The speaker is reflecting on his feelings about love. We can clearly notice that he had his heart broken by someone and that he hasn´t yet figure it out how he feels about the situation.  He has a mixture of feelings thats why he uses a lot of paradoxes, words that contrast each other such as peace and war to show the turmoil inside him.

2-What metaphors and similes does he use to express his feelings?

“I find no peace, and all my war is done.” By saying this, the war is a metaphor of his love or life problems which are a  battle he had to fight as everybody else does when having a problem, but in this case although he fought and won, he hasn´t found peace so something else is missing in his heart to feel complete.

“I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice”. He does not know exactly what to feel, he is confused and he uses a simile to exress it.

3-How many separate paradoxes are in the poem?

There are 15 different paradoxes in the poem, which portray and contrast the speaker´s opposed and confused feelings.

4-What is the cumulative effect of so many paradoxes?

All together, these paradoxes show the clear effect that love has on the speaker, as it “plays” with him, and as a consequence it is left clear the power it has over him. The speaker has no real idea of what he has to do, as he does not understand his feelings.

Although paradoxes in this case are used to show the conffusion on the speaker, they also create a turmoil on the readers because we are not able to completly understand what he feels, so we end up as confused as the speaker is. The poet put us, the readers, at the same level of the persona so that we can truly understand what he feels.

5-What is the general topic of the paradoxes in lines 1-4?

In these lines, the topics are in my opinion, overcoming problems , confusion and lack of tranquility.

6-What is the general topic of the paradoxes in lines 5-8?

In these lines, the topic is in my opinion, trapped by his own feelings.

7-Why does the speaker in line 11 declare that hating himself is the consequence of loving another?

I believe he says that because If he is prepared to put himself in danger for his love, he must not care enough about himself to prevent his own destruction. And iin my opinion someone who thinks that hating hating himself is the consequence of loving someone, is a mentaly unhealthy person or was in a toxic relationship because on the contrary loving someone and that person loving you back makes you love yourself even more if you are happy.

8-Why is it ironic that his “delight” is the “causer of this strife”?

I believe this is ironic because delight is not a cause of strife, in fact is a cause of pleasure and joy. So it makes no sense that being happy can cause him problems.

9-To what extent do you think the paradoxes are an accurate expression of the feelings of a person in love, particularly in light of the fact that in the 16th century the completely free and unchaperoned meetings of lovers were not easily arranged?

10-To what extent do the paradoxes capture the agonies of the speaker?

In my opinion, the paradoxes in the poem fully capture the agonies of the speaker because they transmit us at the perfection the confusion the speaker is going through and uses a lot of metaphors and images that help us picture his feelings.

Here I did an Animoto describing the poem