What is the struture or form of "I Find No Peace" by Sir Thomas Wyatt?

The Petrarchan sonnet provides the English poet not only with a
form but also with the sentiments. The whole nature of the relation between the poet and his
beloved had become conventionalised in terms of an idealized courtly love attitude, which
Petrarch had manifested toward Laura in his love sonnets. The notion of the lover as the humble
servant of the fair lady, injured by her glance, tempest-tossed in seas of despair in rejection,
changing in mood according to the presence or absence of his beloved—was derived from the
medieval view of courtly love, a concept of love which arose out of the changing attitude towards
women centring round Virgin Mary as an ideal example. At this point it must be pointed out that
the imported poetic theme had also become essential for satisfying the mental needs and cultural
tastes of the English gentlemen created by the Renaissance. That is why we find the historical
existence of the English counterparts of Laura almost for all the 16th century
sonneteers.

Wyatt’s I Find No Peace is a sonnet set typically in the
Petrarchan tradition; it has the same five rhymes—abcde, and can be divided
in two parts—octave and sestet. But it should be pointed out here that Wyatt
deviates from the Petrarchan model in a number of ways. While in the former the theme of the poem
is introduced in the octave and developed in the sestet, Wyatt’s poem does not maintain the
division and distribution of thought. The poet begins by enumerating the conflicting states of
mind occasioned by the onset of love:

“I find no peace and all my
war is done,

I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like
ice…”

These carefully chosen monosyllabic words contain enough
information so as to inform the readers what has gone before. His ‘peace’ of mind has been
destroyed by the ‘war’ he has been waging against himself and his ladylove in order to win her
love. It may be surmised here whether after finding his “war is done”, that is, his game over, he
resorts to writing this sonnet in an attempt to communicate to her the words of his desire; for,
the rest of the lines in the poem are set almost as disguised appeals, as desperate cries to the
mistress. This is nowhere so prominent as in the second line, the poet speaks of experiencing
contrary thoughts and emotions: he is afraid of his supposed rejection by her, and that is why
gets frozen at this thought. But at the same time he is hopeful of the prospect of winning her
favour, and this leads him to ‘burn’ in desire for her. It may be pointed out here that Wyatt’s
description of the impact of love, which has not been won, conforms to the onset of love
generated by the first secretion of the hormones in the human body. Quite consistent with this
the poet finds himself daydreaming about an ideal situation: “I fly above the wind…”; but the
next moment the reverie breaks down and he finds himself forlorn heavy with the thoughts of
failure and fails to ‘arise’ out of the situation.

By ARGHYA
JANA