This is my first blog post, feel free to give me feedback on what I can improve on!
Of the poems this week, my favorite was “Stand Whoso List” by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The overarching theme of the poem is living a peaceful life to earn a peaceful death. He paints busyness as an enemy to this ideal, as the more occupied a person is with things in mind, the further away he is from achieving this goal. He desires to die as himself, happy and his own goals achieved. He believes that thinking as another person and wishing to be them causes one to be completely unhealthy and unhappy, driving them into a miserable life: “For him death gripeth / right hard by the crope / That is much known of other; and of himself alas, / Ooth die unknown, dazed with dreadful face (6-10, Wyatt)”. The “Ooth die unknown” line felt like a simple yet chilling message – it’s understandable to admire a person, but you need to come to terms with your own character to find happiness – even if they’re flawed.
When I was reading it, I thought the poem emphasized more on a trochee meter, given how many times the poem would go from stressed to unstressed (brackish, stand, whoso); I think it provides a nice theme of a pendulum between harmony and chaos. The oxymorons between phrases like “brackish joys” and “dazed with dreadful face” help darken the mood of the story and make the narrator’s words more urgent and dramatic.
