Thomas Wyatt -- "He is not ded that somtym hath a fall" -- Second Stage of Reading

Thomas Wyatt

He is not ded that somtyme hath a fall
The sonne retorneth that was under the cloud
And when fortune hath spit oute all her gall,
I trust good luck to me shalbe allowd.
For I have sene a shipp into haven fall
After the storme hath broke boeth mast and shrowd
And eke the willowe that stoppeth with the wynde
Doeth ryse again and greater wode doeth bynd

Second Stage of Reading

Following from my first impression of this poem as hopeful and redemptive, I looked into the Christian over(under?)tones in this poem.           Although God is not explicitly mentioned in this poem, several other images and words reference Christian themes. The description of the ship, of which a “storme hath broke boeth mast and shrowd,” is a loaded image. I had to google what a shrowd is regarding ships—it’s the sort of net-looking rigging you might have seen pirates scaling as they sing shanties, which pulls back on the mast the opposite way the wind in the sails pulls it, so the mast doesn’t just snap over. The teamwork of mast and shrowd could parallel the duality of human soul and body—the mast, like one’s body, ideally stands upright and carries the ship forward, gives it momentum and action in the world. But it can only remain upright and strong through the shroud, the soul, which tethers the body to virtue and higher things in the force of strong winds. Also, the mast blatantly resembles the cross, and the shroud, Christ’s shroud, often depicted hanging off the cross.
                 Similarly, the willow battles wind which threatens to... somehow affect the tree. The word “stoppeth” seems to mean “stop,” as in, when the wind stops blowing, the tree stops moving—without the motivating forces usually at play, whether God’s grace or good fortune or one’s will to keep going, the tree is paralyzed. But another edition of this poem employs the spelling “stoupeth” instead. The OED had no record of “stoup” being used to mean either “stop” or “stoop,” so it could be a variation on spelling “stop” or a different word entirely. The latter makes sense in the opposite way—the willow “stoops with the wind,” or, its branches are bowed lower by strong winds, similar to how the ship is broken by them, yet when they abate, the willow “doeth ryse again.” Rising again is obviously very Christian, as is the “wode” which the tree “doeth bynd” – the wind, like God, may force the branches to stop or bend to its will, but the tree itself has some agency still, yet with that agency it also chooses to bend—as humans have free will, but ideally choose to bend that will to God’s—the branches are bent either way, by outside forces or inside, but the inside force matters most. The parable of the willow calls to mind the story of Job—bent by God/wind to a low point against its will, when it does rise again it does not spring free, but faithfully continues to bend to God’s will, of its own will. “Bynd” could also be read a “bind,” as in, “binds its own wood it its will.”

But knowing what I know of Thomas Wyatt and his usual style, I have doubts about him writing a hopeful little Christian poem prettily tied up with a ribbon like this. Leading me to my third reading...