I FIND NO PEACE

'I find no peace' is a sonnet by Thomas Wyatt.

The intelligent reader understands that the poet can't find peace. It is underlined in the title, where the word 'no' is in contrast with the word 'peace'.

The text is organised into four stanzas: two quartains (that create an octave) and two tercets (that create a sestet) following the Petrarchan model: 8+6=14.

In the first stanza there is a repetition of the subject personal pronoun 'I' (seven times) to focus on it the attention of the reader. The speaking's voice expresses an inner conflict that is expresses throught a list of oxymorons. Indeed the reader comes across a series of semantic opposition that range from the words to verbs.

The choise wants to convey the strugle of somebody who is looking for peace, serenity and tranquillity. In a few words, he looks for an emotional rest after all fights, he has had to cope with so far. The reader also understands that the speaking voices, who speaks in the first personal singular and seven times in the space of first stanza, in addition, his climatic desperate mood resorts to hyperboles to make his feeling clear and evident: 'I fly above the wind' (line 3) 'Can I not arise?'

Exaggeration helps and adds to meaning and the reader totally perceives the speaking voice's inner situation and, as a conseguence, feels involved and hopfully feels empathy for the subject.

In the second quartain the poet uses the complement pronoun 'me' to highlight his passive being. The pain blocks him because he loses his energy. In this line there are some alliterations of the sound 'eth' (an archaism).

In the last tercets the poet uses some oxymorons to stess his mood: 'I derish to perish' 'I ask the health' I feed me in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain'. He loves another woman but this love makes him sad and hates himself.