This essay will examine the poetic similarities and differences between Thomas Wyatt’s poem “My galley” and Don Paterson’s poem “The Wreck”. These similarities and differences are seen through the use of imagery and poetic techniques, such as metaphors, tone of language and a lament. My galley is a love poem about troubles in a relationship written in the form of a sonnet. The sonnet is full of Petrarchan language and discourse for love with oxymoron. Wyatt had a very dramatic background where he was married to Elizabeth Brooke but this ended due to adultery. He was then imprisoned for an alleged affair with Anne in the tower of London. This dramatic background has an impact on his poem ‘My galley’ and can be seen through his use of imagery and poetic techniques. Similarly to this Don Paterson’s poem “The Wreck” is also a love poem about troubles in a relationship, but Paterson’s background was not as dramatic as Wyatt’s and so reflects on his poem “The Wreck” when comparing them both.
The reader can see the troubles of the relationship in the poems ‘My Galley’ and “The Wreck” with the use of imagery the poets present to the reader. This is seen with the use of the cold, dark imagery of winter in “My galley” which can be seen in the lines: “An endless wind doth tear the sail apace/of forced sighs and trusty fearfulness” (7-8). In poetry winter is always associated with misery, heartbreak and loneliness. This winter imagery resembles the troubled relationship, the