Context to the poem

Summary

'Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more.'

he vain travail hath worried me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.

Symbolism of the woman as a 'deer'.

'Yet may I, by no means, my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow'.

'I leave off, therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind'.

The poem as a sonnet

'Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I, may spend his time in vain'.

'And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about'.

"Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame."

Iambic Pentameter

The Speaker