Sample FINISHED EXPLICATION Rough Draft

Sample FINISHED EXPLICATION – Rough Draft

The poem “Whoso List to Hunt” dramatizes the internal conflict between the speaker’s desire for a woman and his logic, which tells him he cannot have her. The speaker uses an extended metaphor to present himself as a hunter who pursues a deer that is actually a metaphor for a beautiful woman. He invites others to join the hunt, though getting her is impossible, since the deer “belongs” to Caesar. In the end, he tries to console himself with the warning that this deer or woman is “wild” even though she seems “tame,” and therefore may not be worth the hunt.

The poem is organized in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, using an octave followed by a sestet in the rhyme scheme abbaabbacdecde. The octave presents a problem in the form of an offer. The speaker offers to show others who wish to hunt where they may find an hind, but notes that he “may [hunt] no more” (1-2), stating that he is too tired to continue the hunt. This weariness is echoed in the alliteration, which repeats “h” sound in the words, “hunt” (1), “hind” (1), and “hath” (3), making it sound as if the speaker is panting, trying to catch his breath. The speaker is represented as a hunter pursuing a beautiful woman at court who is represented as a female deer. The speaker then uses situational irony to describe himself as a losing suitor: “I am of them that farthest cometh behind” (4).

In the sestet, the reader learns that this is ironic because though the speaker presents himself as a potential suitor, the truth is his hunted (the deer / Anne Boleyn) belongs to another, a rich and powerful man presented as “Caesar” in the extended metaphor (11-13). The reader knows that she belongs to a rich man because her collar is encrusted with diamonds, and that she belongs to the powerful and vindictive ruler of Rome. Because the owner is so powerful, so is the warning on the collar: “Noli me tangere” or “Touch me not” (13). This is a warning that hunters should not touch the property of the king. It may be that the hunt of this particular deer is dangerous, then. In the final line, the hunter consoles himself with the thought that though this deer may seem tame, she is too “wild” to “hold” (14), so she would not have been a good catch anyway.