The Court and Sir Thomas Wyatt During the 16th century, English poetry was dominated and institutionalized by the Court. Because it "excited an intensity that indicates a rare concentration of power and cultural dominance," the Court was primarily responsible for the popularity of the poets who emerged from it. Sir Thomas Wyatt, one of the many so-called "court poets" of this period, not only changed the way his society viewed poetry through his adaptations of the Petrarchan Sonnet, but also darkly attempted to recreate the cultural norm through his influence. Although many of his poems are simply translations of Petrarch's, these, in addition to his other poems, are satirical at least from a cultural point of view. Thomas Wyatt was born at Allington Castle in Kent, in 1503 and made his first appearance at court at the age of thirteen as sewer extraordinary to King Henry VIII. In 1525 he served the king in several capacities. Wyatt was rumored to be a lover of Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, and possibly imprisoned for the affair. He witnessed his execution on May 19, 1536. Another important thing to realize while studying Wyatt, in regards to analyzing the poem, is the time period in which he wrote. Although the exact date of the beginning of the Renaissance is unknown, Wyatt was certainly part of that movement. The term Renaissance denotes a transition between the medieval and modern worlds that defined the 16th century and helped broaden man's mind "with a sense of ancient freedoms regained and new regions to explore." Wyatt and one of his contemporaries, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, pioneered a literary movement in which "their task was not to bring out... middle of paper... stands. All the satire found in the poetry of Wyatt addresses the single seemingly overwhelming issue of the Court's influence and control over an individual's morals and emotions. According to Stephen Greenblatt in an essay on culture, the harshest punishments used against those who do not behave in a socially acceptable manner. like confinement (in Wyatt's case), are not as effective as 'seemingly innocuous responses: a condescending smile, laughter poised between the genial and the sarcastic, a small dose of indulgent pity laced with contempt, cold silence.' In literary works, Greenblatt connects these responses with the effect that guilt has in reinforcing cultural boundaries through the use of satire; as I have shown, Wyatt uses poetry, albeit darkly because of the danger it poses to his freedom, as a method of social control..