Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) was the first English sonneteer who tried to adapt the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet to the English language.

I read the sonnet of Petrarch “Passa la nave mia colma d’oblio” and I compared it to “My galley charged with forgetfulness”, the sonnet of Wyatt.

Firstly, I looked at the layout and I recognized the typical structure of the Italian sonnet: both forms of poetry are composed of 14 lines, organised into an octave and a sestet. Therefore, the English one follows the Petrarch’s model.

In the Petrarchan sonnet verses in the octave are rhymed in the following way: ABBA ABBA Then in the sestet verses follow the rhyme-scheme CDE CDE. There is the repetition of sounds, the rhyme-scheme is homogeneous. In the Wyatt’s sonnet the octave presents the same rhyme-scheme of the Italian one, ABBA ABBA. On the other hand, in the sestet verses are rhymed differently: CDD CEE. It is a varied scheme.

The difference is mainly in structure: the two sonnets adopt the same one, but they don’t communicate the same feelings. Wyatt’s sonnet communicates sense of confusion: love is the main topic.

The most important and expensive metaphor is the GALLEY: the poet is transported by the ship, and it sets off a journey --> the voyage represents course of life, life is an allegorical journey.

In contrast, Petrarch communicates sense of calm. He uses the word ‘oblio’: it is more abstract than ‘forgetfulness’ used by Wyatt, that is pragmatic, more concrete.

In the 2nd line Petrarch, to communicate the difficulty of his voyage, uses alliteration of ‘r’:’per aspro mare’. The alliteration can be compared to the word ‘sharp’ in Wyatt’s: the reader has to break the pace of reading, it is a hard pause.

In the 3rd line Wyatt substitutes a geographical reference with a general repetition, he writes ‘rock and rock’ instead of ‘Scilla e Cariddi’ like Petrarch does. He wants to underline the difficulty, because it’s hard to go on.

The ‘lord’ named by the two poets is the guard of the galley/ship. He rules, he is the leader, because he ‘steereth’ (steers) the ship. The lord represents an enemy, but he has got the power: the poet can do nothing against him, he takes distance. The lord is love, because love dominates the poet’s soul.

Line 5th: whenever he moves the oar, the poet reflects about problems of life. Every motion of the oar corresponds to the way the poet faces the situation. Petrarch wants to communicate his internal conflict: he refers to the difficult thoughts that cross his mind.

Line 6th: Petrarch tells the reader that inside him there is a storm and it will cause damage --> the poet could die because of the strength of the storm. Wyatt writes that pain is so much that in comparison death couldn’t be very bad. They both describes their condition as the worst one someone could feel, they would prefer death because it would stop their pain--> desperate poets’ view point, danger.

Line 7th – 8th : in the Petrarch’s sonnet the ship’s sail breaks an eternal wind, made of sighs and hope. The word ‘eternal’ underlines that pain won’t come to an end and the poet is aware of that --> Love won’t leave the soul of the unhappy lover. Wyatt describes the same situation, but in contrast he refers to the wind that tears/destroys the sail. Moreover he writes ‘endless’ to emphasise that the wind will never come to an end.

From line 9th to line 11th Wyatt refers to a ‘rain of tears’ that is falling, it hinders the voyage by destroying cords that had been wreathed in a wrong way. ‘Cords’ represent mistakes made by the poet, they have been made because of ignorance. Petrarch writes ‘stanche’ and Wyatt ‘wearied’ to indicate that the cords are weaker and weaker and they are going to break.

In the last three lines the poet realizes that he isn’t able to reach the port because stars don’t help him: he looked at them but they confuse him. He has lost his mind, therefore he is unable to sail (line 13th : ‘drowned is reason’, Wyatt). The poet uses metaphors of nature to explain his personal condition. He feels like dead --> nature is against the lover, it is stronger than him.