SOURCE: "Wyatt's Use of Repetitions and Refrains," in English Literary Renaissance Vol. XII, No. 3, Autumn, 1982, pp. 291-300.

The following essay points to the complex and subtle patterns of repetition and refrain in Wyatt's poetry as proof of his lyrical mastery.

It is no longer necessary to be defensive in writing about Wyatt. His subordination to Surrey is a thing of the past. The controversies about his competence as a metrist, his dependence on sources, or his lack of specifically poetic interest have all been settled in his favor, and he is now firmly established as one of the first and finest writers of love lyrics in the language. Recently the tendency has been to approach his poetry in the light of its social and courtly background to reveal how its tensions and stresses, once assumed to be exclusively those of the lover, are as much, perhaps even more...