Poetry: Read the sonnet and answer the questions that follow.
“Whoso List to Hunt” by Sir Thomas Wyatt
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore
I am of them that farthest come behind.
5 Yet may I, by no means, my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore,
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
10 As well as I, may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about,
“Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”
- Line 1 – list is a verb meaning “to like; wish; choose”
- Line 1 – hind is a female deer
- Line 3 – travail is a noun meaning “painfully difficult or burdensome work”
- Line 13 – Noli me tangere is Latin for “do not touch me.” During the ancient Roman Empire, the Roman leader Caesar had his own personal herd of deer that no one else was allowed to hunt. These deer could be identified because they wore collars that read “Noli me tangere.”
1. Which of the following images represents the woman the speaker wants to pursue?
A. “The vain travail”
B. “diamond in letters plain”
C. “the deer”
D. “my wearied mind”
2. The tone of “Whoso List to Hunt” is
A. optimistic
B. resigned
C. neutral
D. patient
3. “Whoso List to Hunt” is a
A. Spenserian sonnet
B. Petrarchan sonnet
C. Shakespearean sonnet
D. Petrarchan conceit
4. “Whoso List to Hunt” uses the following structure:
A. three couplets and one octave
B. one sestet and two quatrains
C. three quatrains and a couplet
D. one octave and one sestet