Roberto Banda AguilarMtro. Emiliano Gutirrez PopocaLiteratura en ingls 2March 27, 2014On Thomas Wyatts Whoso List to Hunt ImageryThe sonnet Whoso List to Hunt is an adaptation of Petrarchs Sonnet CXC. In this sonnet Wyatt uses some of the elements of imagery present in Petrarchs sonnet and the convention of this poetic form, but he adapts it to his needs and tastes. Wyatt introduces the sonnet to England at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century and states the rules for its creation. The elements of imagery of Wyatts sonnet Whoso list to hunt are related with the petrarchan sonnet, but Wyatt modifies the meaning of these elements and re-signifies them. In the first quatrain of the poem announces the matter of the sonnet: the theme is the hunt of a hint, which is an analogy of a female figure. Here the poetic voice addresses to the reader about this hint, which hunt will be useless because he has failed to achieve her as a reward though he has tried hard. Here, the imagery elements are related to the semantic field of hunting, suffering and competition. In this search to achieve the hunt of the hint, the poetic voice claims to be tired of the hunting: The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,/I am of them the farthest come behind. (l. 3-4). In the second quatrain we find again elements of hunting but with a connotation of failure. The eighth verse is important because here is the image of the failure of the poetic voice relating his chase with a minor modality like butterfly chases: Since in a net I seek to hold the air. Instead of hunting the deer, the poetic voice says that no even in a minor chance he was lucky; instead of butterflies he caught the wind. The third quatrain is where the poetic voice advertises again about the vain intention to hunt the hint and reveals the motive of this: the pertinence of the deer to an authority. Here, the imagery elements of royalty and hierarchy are present: the collar that means pertinence to someone and the motif of the diamonds (l. 11), rare jewels that only a wealthy person could achieve to have. And also we have to remember that hunting was an activity only allowed to the aristocratic class. Finally, in the couplet we discover the motive of the feeling of failure and frustration of the poetic voice. This hint has an inscription in the collar (again, a symbol of pertinence and authority over this one) that claims: Noli me tangere, or do not touch me in Latin, and then: cause Caesars I am (l.13). Here, the image is an analogy of the power of the person who owns this hint with the one of a roman emperor like Caesar. And in the last verse is the advertence that this deer seems to be tame but it is a wild animal that only a king is able to control.