Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Can you help me interpret "Blame not my Lute" by Sir Thomas Wyatt?Just the general meaning of the poem. Different allegories or references.

Nothing much complicated here. The speaker tells his lady love not to blame the instrument he uses (a lute in this case) for the song of complaint he is singing about her:



My Lute and strings may not deny
But as I strike they must obey




He tells her she is to blame for the things he sings. She deserves it all:



Spite asketh spite, and changing change,
And falsèd faith must needs be known ;
The fault so great, the case so strange ;
Of right it must abroad be blown :
Then since that by thine own desart
My songs do tell how true thou art,



She has been unfaithful to a fault, and he has a right to proclaim it so. Indeed, he tells her not to blame his lute, but rather to blame herself for what she has done:



Blame but thyself that hast misdone,
And well deservèd to have blame ;



At last he tells her that even if she breaks his instrument, it doesn't matter, for he will fix it again and continue to make his music, and sing what he sings, true and fair. And it's just too bad if she doesn't like it:



for though thou break
My strings in spite with great disdain,
Yet have I found out for thy sake,
Strings for to string my Lute again :
And if, perchance, this sely rhyme
Do make thee blush, at any time,
Blame not my Lute !


No comments:

Post a Comment