Divers Doth Use (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Sonnet
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet
- Subjects: Love or romance, England or English people, Adultery, Sixteenth century, Royal courts or courtiers
The Poem
“Divers Doth Use” is a sonnet in the Italian, or Petrarchan, form, rhymed abbaabba, cddcee, and thus structured as an octave and a sestet, rather than in the four quatrains of the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet. As in many of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s shorter lyrics, the subject here is the ending of romantic relationships in the context of a sophisticated Renaissance court whose sexual mores are promiscuous and whose social manners are often modeled after those found in poetry. The first-person voice in the poem, whether Wyatt’s or that of an...
[The entire page is 1184 words long]
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