The Complete Poems

Wyatt served King Henry VIII as a diplomat and as ambassador to Spain. He was imprisoned twice (once for brawling, in 1534, and once on suspicion of treason, in 1536) and was the reputed lover of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. His poetry reflects the influence of French and Italian literature (notably the Italian sonneteer Petrarch) (see Vol. 2), and also the troubled course of his career as a courtier. Wyatt introduced the Italian sonnet into English verse, for the most part translating and paraphrasing Petrarchan originals, and employing rhyme schemes derived from other Italian poets. The sonnet, of course, was to become one of the chief English poetic forms; in Wyatt's handling, it displays a peculiarly biting edge. As C. S. Lewis writes, "Poor Wyatt seems to be always in love with women he dislikes." Wyatt's poetry also includes epigrams, satires, and devotional works, as well as many lyrics that look to Chaucerian precedent in form and outlook. He and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, who established the "English" sonnet form (three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg abab, cdcd, efef, gg), have justly been called the first reformers of English meter and style. The work of both was first published in Tottel's Miscellany (1557).