The pillar I depended on for support has died and left me alone. It was the strongest influence on my troubled mind. I was molded into a better person by my pillar. The pillar was so unique, there is no replacement that could fix this pain I feel, no matter how far you search you won’t find one. You could search far east and far west and still I will never again experience happiness. Misfortune has taken away my support and exposed my vulnerability. My external ability to express happiness has been stripped from me. Bad luck has chosen me for this terrible life. Fate will not let me move on and every day I am forced to relive this pain and depression until I die and only then will I be freed of this sorrow. Since destiny says this is the way it is, what more can I do but have a broken heart. I am destined to be a sad person. My mind is in woe, my body is riddled with pain, and I will always hate myself for it. I will hate myself for this pain I feel until death eases my disturbed mind.
The main and most important image in this poem is “the pillar” as a support system in Wyatt’s life. This pillar is supposed to represent an important figure in Sir Thomas Wyatt’s life, likely a lover or role model in his life. This is clear because he writes “The strongest stay of mine unquiet mind; The like of it no man again can find” which means that this person had a large impact on his life, a person that was one of a kind. He was formerly a weak and scrambled individual who was shaped into a better, happier person by this figure until their death. The portion of Wyatt’s life that they were apart of was the best part of his life. Once the subject of Wyatt’s adoration perished, he fell into a spiral of sorrow and self-hate. He expresses the helplessness he feels without this individual and how unstable he is and it does sound reminiscent of a collapsed, unstable house. He hates that he cannot be happy without the pillar in his life.
Pillars are used to support weak areas in a building, they stand strong and hold them up to keep them stable. If a weak part of a building needs a pillar and doesn’t have one then it becomes dangerous and could collapse. If a pillar was keeping a building stable and the pillar begins to fail then so does the building. And say this pillar was special or irreplaceable like Wyatt states when he writes “The like of it no man again can find, from east to west still seeking though he went…” then the building has no hope of ever standing again. Wyatt also expresses this idea because he will mourn until he dies, believing it is his destiny to be this gut wrenchingly sad for the rest of his life. He will never stand, he will never again be a strong building. He is destined to be unstable. Wyatt cannot be happy without his support, he was a troubled person before the pillar and likewise he is a troubled person after it is gone. What causes a pillar to crumble and cease existing? The external world weathers and beats on the structure and...
