In Peace with Foul Desire In the poem “Th’Assryians’ King, in Peace with Foul Desire”, poet Henry Howard delves into historical allusions to Henry VIII, King of England at the time. Howard had many issues with the king which are represented in the subject of the poem, tone, language, and clear connections between the Assyrian King and Henry VIII. The poem seethes with Howard’s anger and bitterness; his unbridled temper creates a poem to put the King(s) in a derogatory light. The rhetoric of the poem disgusts and upsets readers with vivid imagery of sinful activities like lust, sloth, and greed. Howard repeatedly refers to the overwhelming lust that the Assyrian King has that causes him to lose “the name of manhood” (9) and “his honor and
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Howard had a legitimate claim to the throne through bloodline, and seems to be bitter that Henry VIII has all this power but is squandering it by being an ineffective and weak leader. He calls the king “in peace with foul desire” which suggests selfishness of the King to his own desires. In the Renaissance period, people saw the King as the head of the state, the spokesman from God chosen to lead the people. However religiously good-meaning this mindset might be, politics often gets much uglier. Howard saw Henry VIII as not a king, but as a person who could not do his job very well because he was sinful and selfish. Due to the bitterness of the tone, Howard seems to make the claim that HE would be a much better king of England since he can recognize all these wrongdoings of the current monarch. However, the flowing rhythm of the poem is an example of iambic pentameter (ababcdcdefefgg) with common features of an early Shakespearean sonnet. Howard wanted the poem to juxtapose its bitter tone and unsettling rhetoric with a smooth-sounding rhythm because he wanted it to circulate. Courtiers were more likely to enjoy a poem if it sounded good which the sonnet form does excellently in a shorter amount of time than most other types of poems. Therefore, his effort in using the form of a sonnet with the devices of rhetoric, tone, and rhythm give the poem a unique
Howard had a legitimate claim to the throne through bloodline, and seems to be bitter that Henry VIII has all this power but is squandering it by being an ineffective and weak leader. He calls the king “in peace with foul desire” which suggests selfishness of the King to his own desires. In the Renaissance period, people saw the King as the head of the state, the spokesman from God chosen to lead the people. However religiously good-meaning this mindset might be, politics often gets much uglier. Howard saw Henry VIII as not a king, but as a person who could not do his job very well because he was sinful and selfish. Due to the bitterness of the tone, Howard seems to make the claim that HE would be a much better king of England since he can recognize all these wrongdoings of the current monarch. However, the flowing rhythm of the poem is an example of iambic pentameter (ababcdcdefefgg) with common features of an early Shakespearean sonnet. Howard wanted the poem to juxtapose its bitter tone and unsettling rhetoric with a smooth-sounding rhythm because he wanted it to circulate. Courtiers were more likely to enjoy a poem if it sounded good which the sonnet form does excellently in a shorter amount of time than most other types of poems. Therefore, his effort in using the form of a sonnet with the devices of rhetoric, tone, and rhythm give the poem a unique