poets. Later, his translations of Petrarch introduced the sonnet into England, which is what he is most commonly known for.Wyatt’s translations of Petrarch’s poems, mainly idealisations of unobtainable women and considered to be biographical, were unusual in the Court at the time. Court poetry, because used only for special occasions and entertainment, allowed little or no room for a poet’s personal emotions. Most of Wyatt’s poetry ‘is conventionally elegant, clear, impersonal, speaking with the voice of the collective, directed at his audience rather than to his own experiences.’ Wyatt’s unique translations reveal his own emotions in a limited, but accepted way. The sonnet, because of its small size and strict form, allows little room for vagueness and forces its writer to avoid obscurity; ‘the sonnet itself is such a model space- a stanza, a small room, like those no doubt of study or closet in which it would be written or read.’ Wyatt employed the sonnet as a corrective for vague thought and loose expression that nearly all Court poetry typified. Because of Wyatt’s position in his culture, obedience of the laws in Courtly love was expected of him. Wyatt argues against this restraint of his passion in the sonnets ‘Farewell, Love, and all thy laws for ever’ and ‘I abide and abide and better abide.’ In ‘Farewell Love’ the speaker dismisses the ‘baited hooks’ and ‘sharp repulse’ of love and its laws, or, as a present day reader would assume, the laws of Courtly love in particular, being as this is all Wyatt had known in his life time. Courtly love is a type of game where the chivalric gentleman is never rewarded by the woman he lusts after, his desires are never satisfied. Like the speaker of the poem who ‘lusteth no longer rotten boughs to climb’ Wyatt wanted the laws of Courtly love to ‘c...
