that those in power can hear honest criticism. Mum,
however, argues that fl attering those in power is far
more practical—and lucrative. Although the reader
clearly recognizes Mum’s hypocrisy and self-interest,
the poem’s narrator is unable to choose between the
two opinions and so decides to look into the matter
further by a closer look at the world. In a section recall-
ing the estates satire genre (see SATIRE, THREE ESTATES) of
Langland’s opening vision (or of GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s
GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES), the narra-
tor visits a university and speaks with personifi ed Lib-
eral Arts, with friars, with townspeople, and with a
parish priest. In his satire of the ecclesiastical status
quo, the poet reveals what some scholars have seen as
sympathy for LOLLARDISM (a heretical movement).
As he wanders, the narrator is able to fi nd Mum
everywhere he looks, but he has a much more diffi cult
time fi nding anyone who will tell the truth. Finally,
like Piers Plowman itself, the poem turns into a DREAM
VISION, in which the narrator sees a hive of bees repre-
senting the ideal commonwealth. A beekeeper (the
wise king) stamps out those bees that do not contrib-
ute to the common good of the hive.
In the end, or the end as we have it, the speaker of
the poem becomes, through telling his or her own
story, the kind of Sothsegger that is necessary for the
kingdom to fl ourish. A good king, the poem asserts,
must be willing to listen to open constructive criticism
in order for the kingdom to thrive.
See also ALLITERATION, MIDDLE ENGLISH POETRY,
PERSONIFICATION.
FURTHER READING
Barr, Helen, ed. The Piers Plowman Tradition: A Critical Edi-
tion of Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede, Richard the Redeless,
Mum and the Sothsegger, and The Crowned King. London: J.
M. Dent, 1993.
Dean, James M., ed. Richard the Redeless and Mum and the
Sothsegger. Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University for
TEAMS, 2000.
Jay Ruud
“MY GALLEY CHARG’D WITH FOR-
GETFULNESS” SIR THOMAS WYATT (1557)
“My Galley Charg’d with Forgetfulness” is a translation
and adaptation of PETRARCH’s Rima 189, as is Sonnet 34
from EDMUND SPENCER’s AMORETTI. Arranged in the
ENGLISH SONNET form, the fi rst two QUATRAINs interlock
through a shared rhyme: abba, acca, deed, ff. The fi nal
quatrain and concluding COUPLET feature all new
rhymes, driving the poem’s rhythm forward with an
almost brute force, perhaps mirroring the onward
motion of the relentless oars (l. 5).
The poem is built upon an extended (and traditional)
CONCEIT of a ship as vessel of love and highlights the
suffering the lover must endure in the face of unre-
quited love. Physical and psychological separation are
confl ated, all controlled by the cruel lord of love who
delights in the speaker’s suffering. The poem is an ALLE-
GORY of LOVESICKNESS: Rain stands for tears, clouds for
disdain, stars for the beloved’s eyes, and so forth. The
situation is encapsulated in the couplet: “Drowned is
reason that should me consort, / And I remain despair-
ing of the port” (ll. 13–14). Though logic should be
guiding the speaker, instead he is being guided by his
unreachable beloved’s eyes, leaving him forever lost at
sea, tossed on the tempestuous waves of love. His ship
will never berth, a clearly erotic image of penetration.
A number of critics have suggested that this poem
refl ects SIR THOMAS WYATT’s despair over the loss of his
mistress, Anne Boleyn, to King HENRY VIII, though
there is no direct evidence the two were lovers. Recent
psychoanalytic views suggest that Wyatt’s despair pre-
ceded the poem, making the seascape bleaker and
darker than the Petrarchan original. Most agree overall,
that “My Galley” is an excellent example of stylized
emotional verse.
FURTHER READING
Thomson, Patricia. Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Background.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1964.“MY LIEF IS FAREN IN LONDE” ANONY-
MOUS (14th century) This brief Middle English
lyric has seven lines, rhymed ababcbc. It was appar-
ently meant to be sung, but, as with many secular lyr-
ics, specifi c music for it has not survived. The poem
expresses the lament of a lover for his beloved, who
has departed to a place where the speaker cannot go.
The speaker’s heart, however, is in the beloved’s pos-
session wherever she travels; it accompanies her on her
journey with “trew love a thousand fold.”“MY LIEF IS FAREN IN LONDE” 283