I Find No Peace Summary

I Find No Peace Overview

“I Find No Peace” is a sonnet by early modern English courtly poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt. Like many of Wyatt’s works, the poem is an adaptation of an earlier sonnet by the Italian poet Petrarch. The Italian original, Petrarch’s Rime 134, is titled “Pace non trovo e non ho da far guerra.” Wyatt’s version was authored at an unknown date, though it can be dated to between 1520 and 1542, between Wyatt’s early years of poetic production and his death. The likeliest date is around 1527, the year that Queen Catherine of Aragon commissioned Wyatt to translate Petrarch’s De remedies utriusque fortunae, though some scholars argue his poetic translations of Petrarch predate the commission, or around 1536, the time when Wyatt was inspired to write many of his love sonnets due to his relationship with Elizabeth Darrell. This poem uses opposition to depict the ferocity and wonder of love.