The structure of Wyayy's poem, in iambic (x/) trimeter
(three metric feet x/ x/ x/), is four sestets in am atypical rhyme scheme of a b b b a
c, with subsequent stanzas replacing /b/ with /d, e, f/ respectively. A typical Wyatt
sestet rhyme is a b b a b b.
The first line repeats at the beginning
of each stanza with no variation to "And will yhou leave me thus?" except for a change
in punctuation from a question mark to a comma in stanzas 2, 3, and 4. The same line
repeats as the fifth line of each stanza with one variation of "As for to leave me
thus?" in stanza 2. The sixth line of each, with no variation of word or punctuation, is
the emphatic "Say nay, say nay!"
The theme is the poetic speaker's
appeal to his beloved to refrain frpom leaving him; the appeal is posed as a series of
questions that ask about "shame" and "blame"; that assert past unvarying love through
"wealth and woe and wrong?"; and that remind of a heart given "from you not to part"
from "him that has loved you ...." Of course, the speaker ends his appeal in each stanza
with the pleading "Say nay, say nay!" with no variations.
The
predominant literary device is the asking of rhetorical questions such as "And have no
more rue / For him that has loved you?" A repeated literary device is a figure of speech
that is a word scheme called diacope, which is the re[petition of a single word or
phrase as in "Say nay, say nay!" While sensory imagery like "O dear, you run me
through!" is limited, strong vocabulary words evocative of important abstract concepts,
like fidelity ("That has loved you so long") and innocence, which is opposite of blame
("To save you from the blame / Of all my grief ...") are used
throughout.
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