Tudor & Elizabethan

Sir Thomas Wyatt

1503–1542


Sir Thomas Wyatt was a Kentish courtier and diplomat under Henry VIII, credited with introducing the sonnet form into English poetry after his travels in Italy.

His lyrics of love and court intrigue circulated in manuscript during his lifetime and were first printed posthumously in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).

  1. Forget not yet
  2. The Appeal
  3. A Revocation
  4. They Flee from Me
  5. To His Lute
  6. The One He Would Love
  7. What vaileth trouth ? or by it to take payn
  8. Ffor to love her for her lokes lovely
  9. Helpe me to seke for I lost it ther
  10. Yf it be so that I forsake the
  11. Thou hast no faith of him that hath none
  12. Goo burnyng sighes ! unto the frosen hert
  13. Ye old mule that think your self so fayre
  14. What no perdy ye may be sure
  15. Cesar, when that the traytor of Egipt
  16. The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar
  17. Who so list to hount : I know where is an hynde
  18. Was I never yet of your love greved
  19. Eche man me telleth I chaunge moost my devise
  20. If amours faith, an hert unfayned
  21. Ffarewell Love and all thy lawes for ever
  22. My hert I gave the not to do it payn
  23. There was never ffile : half so well filed
  24. Som fowles there be that have so perfaict sight
  25. Bicause I have the still kept fro lyes and blame
  26. I fynde no peace and all my warr is done
  27. Though I my self be bridilled of my mynde
  28. My galy charged with forgetfulnes
  29. Avysing the bright bemes of these fayer lyes
  30. Ever myn happ is slack and slo in comyng
  31. Love and fortune and my mynde, remembr
  32. How oft have I, my dere and cruell foo
  33. Like to these unmesurable montayns
  34. The lyvely sperkes that issue from those lyes
  35. Suche vayn thought as wonted to myslede me
  36. I abide and abide and better abide
  37. Dyvers dothe use as I have hard and kno
  38. Mye love toke skorne my servise to retaine
  39. To rayle or jest ye know I use it not
  40. Unstable dreme, according to the place
  41. You that in love finde lucke and habundaunce
  42. If waker care ; if sodayne pale Coulor
  43. The piller pearishd is whearto I lent
  44. Such is the course that natures kind hath wrought
  45. The flaming sighes that boyle within my Brest
  46. Who hath herd of suche crueltye before
  47. She sat and sowde that hath done me the wrong
  48. Alas madame for stelyng of a kysse
  49. The wandering gadlyng in the sommer tyde
  50. What nedeth these threning wordes and wasted wynde
  51. Ryght true it is : and said full yore agoo
  52. What wourde is that that chaungeth not
  53. A ladye gave me a gyfte she had not
  54. He is not ded that somtyme hath a fall
  55. The furyous gonne, in his raging yre
  56. Th enmy of liff, decayer of all kynde
  57. Nature that gave the bee so swete a grace
  58. Desire alas, my master and my foo
  59. Venemus thornes that ar so sharp and kene
  60. In dowtfull brest, whilst moderly pitie
  61. Off Cartage he, that worthie warier
  62. I lede a liff unpleasant, nothing glad
  63. From thes hye hilles as when a spryng doth fall
  64. Tagus, fare well, that westward with thy stremis
  65. Off purpos Love chase first for to be blynd
  66. Vulcane bygat me : Mynerva me taught
  67. All yn thi sight my lif doth hole depende
  68. The fructe of all the servise that I serve
  69. Within my brest I never thought it gain
  70. For shamefast harm of great and hatefull nede
  71. My love ys lyke unto theternall fyre
  72. In court to serve decked with freshe aray
  73. Luckes my faire falcon and your fellowes all
  74. Sighes ar my foode : drynke are my teares
  75. Alas the greiff and dedly wofull smert
  76. The restfull place, revyver of my smarte
  77. Myne olde dere enmy, my froward master
  78. Farewell, the rayn of crueltie
  79. It may be good, like it who list
  80. Resound my voyse ; ye wodes that here me plain
  81. In faith I wot not well what to say
  82. Madame withouten many wordes
  83. Suche happe as I ame happed in
  84. There was never nothing more me payned
  85. Patience, tho I have not
  86. Paciens for my devise
  87. Ye know my herte my ladye dere
  88. If fansy would favor
  89. At moost myschief
  90. Marvaill no more all tho
  91. Where shall I have at myn owne will
  92. Tho I cannot your crueltie constrain
  93. To wisshe and want and not obtain
  94. My hope, Alas, hath me abused
  95. What deth is worse then this
  96. Ons as me thought fortune me kyst
  97. If chaunce assynd
  98. Lyk as the swanne towardis her dethe
  99. In eternum I was ons determined
  100. Syns ye delite to knowe
  101. Hevyn and erth and all that here me plain
  102. Comfort thy self my wofull hert
  103. To cause accord or to aggre
  104. Myn owne John Poynz, sins ye delight to know
  105. My mothers maydes when they did sowe and spyn
  106. A spending hand that alway powreth owte
  107. Processe of tyme worketh suche wounder
  108. After great stormes the cawme retornis
  109. All hevy myndes
  110. To seke eche where, where man doeth lyve
  111. A goodely hand
  112. Lo, what it is to love
  113. Leve thus to slander love
  114. Who most doeth slaunder love
  115. Yf in the world ther be more woo
  116. Th answere that ye made to me my dere
  117. Most wretched hart most myserable
  118. And if an iye may save or sleye
  119. What rage is this ? What furour of what kynd
  120. The First Penitential Psalm (Psalm 6)
  121. The Second Penitential Psalm (Psalm 32)
  122. The Third Penitential Psalm (Psalm 38)
  123. The Fourth Penitential Psalm (Psalm 51)
  124. The Fifth Penitential Psalm (Psalm 102)
  125. The Sixth Penitential Psalm (Psalm 130)
  126. The Seventh Penitential Psalm (Psalm 143)
  127. Take hede be tyme lest ye be spyde
  128. My pen, take payn a lyttyll space
  129. I love lovyd and so dothe she
  130. Suffryng in sorow in hope to attayn
  131. At last withdrawe your crueltie
  132. To wette your iye withouten teare
  133. What menythe thys, when I lye alone
  134. Farewell all my welfare
  135. Ys yt possyble
  136. That tyme that myrthe dyd stere my shypp
  137. As power and wytt wyll me assyst
  138. The knot which fyrst my hert did strayn
  139. It was my choyse it was no chance
  140. So unwarely was never no man cawght
  141. Ffull well yt maye be sene
  142. Syns love ys suche, that as ye wott
  143. Lo how I seke and sew to have
  144. Now must I lerne to lyve at rest
  145. myserable sorow withowten cure
  146. Blame not my lute for he must sound
  147. If with complaint the paine myght be exprest
  148. Sins you will nedes that I shall sing
  149. Gyve place all ye that doth rejoyse
  150. Me list no more to sing
  151. The Joye so short alas, the paine so nere
  152. Payne of all payne the most grevous paine
  153. Lament my losse, my labor, and my payne
  154. Spight hathe no power to make me sadde
  155. A ! my herte, a ! what aileth the
  156. Hate whom ye list for I kare not
  157. Grudge on who liste, this ys my lott
  158. Greting to you both yn hertye wyse
  159. Tanglid I was in loves snare
  160. Love doth againe
  161. With serving still
  162. Now all of change
  163. Dryven bye desire I dede this dede
  164. Absens absenting causithe me to complaine
  165. When that I call unto my mynde
  166. To make an ende of all this strif
  167. Wyll ye se what wonderous love hathe wrought
  168. Deme as ye list upon goode cause
  169. I am as I am and so will I be
  170. Patiens for I have wrong
  171. Dysdaine me not without desert
  172. Lyke as the wynde with raging blaste
  173. Under this stone ther lyeth at rest
  174. Like as the byrde in the cage enclosed
  175. Accused though I be without desert
  176. Passe forth my wonted cryes
  177. Your lokes so often cast
  178. Synce love wyll nedes that I shall love
  179. For want of will, in wo I playne
  180. Mistrustfull mindes be moved
  181. I see that chance hath chosen me
  182. Suffised not (Madame) that you did teare
  183. In faythe methynkes yt ys no ryght
  184. Perdye I saide it not
  185. How should I
  186. Throughout the world if it were sought

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