1. As Nathan Levi-Power argues, “For Thomas Hobbes, the state of nature is essentially lawless. The absence of law gives people the right to do whatever they want” (223).
2. The sonnet points out how social media can function as a means of redemption in a world of despair:
When all my homework gets me down, and I
Can hardly muster up the strength to toast
A tasty grilled cheese sandwich, though I try,
Then I compose a fitting Facebook post. (5-8)
3. During show-and-tell, Mary is told that bringing a lamb to school goes “against the rule” (12). If we interpret Mary’s name as an allusion to the Virgin Mary, and the lamb as representing Christ, then these lines may be read as a comment on the separation of church and school.
4. Lynn Hunt describes how a “a tiding of magpies” (44) invaded the neighbourhood.
5. The poem opens with lyrical description of nature: “This last Thursday I did spy / A butterfly go flutterbying by.”
6. Anne Shelley suggests that Wyatt’s poem is a thinly veiled commentary on the reign of Henry VIII:
Thomas Wyatt’s poem “Whoso List To Hunt” is a scathing rebuke of the Stalinist court culture during the reign of King Henry VIII. . . . In the poem Wyatt describes the dangers of loving a woman when the king also has his eyes on her. The woman in question was likely Anne Boleyn, whom Henry VIII briefly married in 1633 before executing her in 1636. Wyatt compares Anne to a deer that wears Caesar’s collar, inscribed with the words “noli me tangere” (do not touch me). (55)
7. Around 55% of elementary school teachers admit to receiving a steady supply of candy from their local dentist (Elton 14).