For this week’s blog post, I’m choosing to focus on the poem Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt. In the simplest of terms, I read this poem as one about hunting, particularly a man who tires of hunting a deer. He describes his attempts to capture the deer, ultimately comparing his endeavors to catching the wind with a net— impossible and ultimately fruitless. He speaks to the reader, revealing that while his mind is with the deer, his body can carry on no more, and he must give up the chase. In this way, the poem is quite direct. However, I understood this poem, more thematically and symbolically, to be about a man’s pursuit of a woman, with the deer representing the object of the speaker’s affections. This reading threads, for me, into two possible interpretations. The first is one of lost love and heartbreak: the speaker of the poem has been trying for so long to win his love’s affection that he has grown weary, incapable of carrying on. It is a poem, for him, about the prize he could not win, and the woman who ultimately belonged to another. While he gives up the chase, his thoughts remain with her— he is devoted to a woman he ultimately cannot have. Sweet sentiments, absolutely. However, I am drawn to a more sinister reading of this poem, particularly to the undercurrents of violence that such an interpretation carries. The word hunt, particularly, enhances this reading of the poem for me. There’s an inherent implication of brutality, a single-minded goal of capturing and/or killing one’s target that, when applied to the idea of romantic pursuit, becomes incredibly disturbing. It stirs the image of predator and prey, framing the woman in this poem as a prize to be won, her ultimate fate being slaughter. And despite the deer’s escape, the speaker describes a kind of persistent obsession with his love, his thoughts lingering with her even when he forfeits his pursuit. When read innocently, the idea, as I mentioned before, seems sweet. However, after applying a more alarming tone to the poem, such statements become cause for concern. He appears oddly possessive, warning those who might try to win her that she is impossible to catch. It’s possible that this is a complete misreading of the poem, but I thought it might be an interesting perspective to examine.