Surprised With Joy

When C.S. Lewis published in 1955 an autobiographical work describing his conversion to Christianity, he borrowed a phrase from the title of a poem by William Wordsworth, "Surprised by Joy." Going back further in history, a similar phrase appears in a poetical work by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542). He is considered "the Father of English Poetry" for introducing the sonnet to English poetry, and the story of his love for Anne Boleyn is well known, which he had to concede to another, for she later married King Henry VIII. "Whoso List to Hunt" is thought by some to be written about her:

THE LOVER DESPAIRING TO ATTAIN UNTO

HIS LADY'S GRACE RELINQUISHETH THE PURSUIT.

HOSO list to hunt ? I know where is an
hind !
But as for me, alas ! I may no more,
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore ;
I am of them that furthest come behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer ; but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow ; I leave off therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt
As well as I, may spend his time in vain !
And graven with diamonds in letters plain,
There is written her fair neck round about ;
' Noli me tangere; for Cæsar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.'

In the 1530s and early 1540s, he wrote metrical versions of the Seven Penitential Psalms, published posthumously as Certayne psalmes chosesn out of the psalter of David/ commonly called thee .vii. penytentiall psalmes (1549). His work precedes that of Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins, making him the first English poet to render the Psalms in metre. The postscript to his rendering of Psalm 32 speaks of David in the cave as he finds pardon from the Lord. The wording is striking:

Surprised with joy, by penance of the heart [modern spelling]

There are some who find in his metrical psalms an acknowledgment of sin in his love affair with Anne Boleyn and a connection with David's sin with Bathsheba. It may have been so, or perhaps it was platonic. Regardless, as a man and as a poet, he was drawn to versify select penitential psalms, and who cannot sing with the Psalmist (in Wyatt's tongue) "To thee above, to thee have I trespassed" (Psalm 51) or

From depth of sin, & from deep despair
From depth of death, from depth of hart's sorrow
From this deep cave, of darkness, deep repair
Thee have I called (O Lord) to be my borow
Thou in my voice, O Lord, perceive and hear (Psalm 130)

The songs of a broken spirit and a contrite heart, whose sin is known to God alone and covered by the blood of Jesus, are timeless. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder lived a life that encompassed much greatness and much suffering. His son, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, led a Protestant revolt against 'Bloody' Queen Mary and was executed for it in the Tower of London. I remember speaking with a guard at the Tower about it as a child on a visit to London for the Wyatts are my ancestors. So I sing their song too, and to the glory of God.