To better understand the sonnet tradition, consider The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English (2001), edited by Phillis Levin. This book begins with the sonnets of Petrarch and Chaucer and has representative sonnets from each century since, including a good selection of twentieth-century poets. Five of Wyatt's poems are reprinted in this book, including “Whoso List to Hunt.”

Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works (2002), edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones, provides a selection of texts by one of the sixteenth century's most important poets. His sonnets were influenced by both Petrarch and Wyatt.

Edmund Spenser's Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Criticism (1993) takes a critical look at the work of another poet who was influenced by Wyatt.

A good source for sixteenth-century love sonnets is The Sonnets: Poems of Love (1980), by William Shakespeare.

To hear William Shakespeare's sonnets read aloud...