I Find no Peace

BY SIR THOMAS WYATT

I find no peace, and all my war is done.
I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.
I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;
And nought I have, and all the world I seize on.
That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison
And holdeth me not—yet can I scape no wise—
Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,
And yet of death it giveth me occasion.
Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.
I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.
I love another, and thus I hate myself.
I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;
Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,
And my delight is causer of this strife.

Thomas Wyatt’s well-known sonnet ‘I Find no Peace’ describes the serious emotions and wavering moods that being in love can cause. Being written during the time of the Renaissance, when people esteemed love yet denounced the idea of love before marriage or having mistresses, the poet tries to explain the complexness of being in love. This also explains why the majority of Wyatt’s poems deal with love and grief as themes. Though the poem doesn’t precisely reveal the context of these emotional instabilities, it could easily be associated with several situations people in love face.