Wyatt is buried in the north
transept of Sherborne Abbey,
Dorset, England. He was born at Allington Castle near
Maidstone in Kent but his family originally came from
Yorksire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge
and then followed his father into the world of London court
life where he was employed in Henry VIII's
diplomatic service. He was posted to France, Italy,
Spain and the Netherlands.
Memorial for Sir Thomas
Wyatt by Andrew Rabbott
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Wyatt first visited Italy in 1527 where he encountered
the work of writers such as
Petrarch and Horace. He was greatly influenced by them and
began to translate their work into English. He was particularly
instrumental in popularising the use of the
sonnet
form. However, it was Henry Howard,
Earl of Surrey who is credited with inventing the Engish sonnet which
had three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet - as opposed
to the Italian sonnet which had 2 quatrains and a sestet. It
was this new type of sonnet which was used by
Shakespeare
in his renowned sonnet sequence. The term 'sonnet' derives
from the Italian for 'little song'.
Wyatt also experimented with other verse
forms such as terza rima, roundeau, ottava rima and he
popularised the use of Poulter's Measure - which is a meter
of alternating lines of iambic hexameter and iambic
heptameter.
Wyatt was
a close associate of Anne Boleyn, (Henry's second wife) and
when he confessed that she had been his mistress he was
imprisioned in the tower in 1536 - but his frankness saved
him from execution. After the execution of his friend Thomas
Cromwell in 1540 Wyatt was arrested again, this time for
treason. He was released two months later but never regained
his influence.
Wyatt's reputation today is mixed: C.S. Lewis referred to him as
'the father of
the Drab Age' but other observers have seen him as a
creative and inventive poet. However, he has tended to be
overshadowed by the Earl of Surrey.
None of Wyatt's work was published during his life time.
He wrote mainly about romantic love but also crafted satires
about the hypocrisy of court life. He was a great admirer of
Chaucer and his pioneering
love poems were a major influence on John Donne.
Wyatt died in October 1542 of a fever contracted after hard
riding on a last diplomatic errand. Wyatt's epitaph:
'wyat resteth here that, quick could never rest' is the
first line of a memorial poem by the Earl of Surrey.