SOURCE: Muir, Kenneth. “Wyatt's Poetry.” In Life and Letters of Sir Thomas Wyatt, pp. 222-60. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1963.

In the excerpt below, Muir analyzes the canon of Wyatt's poetry, concluding that his original lyrics are his finest writings.

(1) the Manuscripts

Some account of the manuscripts, apart from a recently discovered one, in which Wyatt's poems appear will be found in all recent editions of his poetry. By far the most important is Egerton MS. 2711 (E) in the British Museum, which contains 101 of his lyrics, as well as the satires and the psalms. The early part of the manuscript is in the hand of a scribe, with occasional corrections in Wyatt's own hand; the later poems in the manuscript, including the Penitential Psalms, are mostly in Wyatt's hand, and some of them appear to be first drafts with numerous corrections. The next manuscript, identified as Blage's (B) in...