"They flee from me" by Thomas Wyatt

They flee from me

They flee from me

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,

The ones I used to want leave me

With naked foot stalking in my chamber.

Stealthily walking naked in my bedroom

I have seen them, gentle, tame, and meek,

I knew them when they were innocent

That now are wild, and do not remember

They’ve lost and forgotten their innocence

That sometime they put themselves in danger

They used to be in danger

To take bread at my hand; and now they range,

And accepted gifts from me.

Busily seeking with a continual change.

Now they look for something new

Thanked be Fortune it hath been otherwise,

I have good fortune, not always though.

Twenty times better; but once in special,

Twenty occasions, but once especially.

In thin array, after a pleasant guise,

A pleasant appearance.

When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,

She sensually undressed.

And she me caught in her arms long and small,

She held me in her arms

And therewith all sweetly did me kiss

Then kissed me.

And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”

And asked if it was pleasurable to me

It was no dream, I lay broad waking.

It was reality and truly happened

But all is turned, thorough my gentleness,

Things change because of my kindness

Into a strange fashion of forsaking;

A strange abandonment

And I have leave to go, of her goodness,

I could leave her

And she also to use newfangleness.

She desires new things

But since that I so kindely am served,

(sarcasm) I am treated kindly by her

I fain would know what she hath deserved.

(sarcasm) I wouldn’t know what is good for her.

Theme

One theme of this poem is abandonment. He originally desires women that are innocent and will be true. He becomes infatuated in them and they seem to feel the same. However, they soon desire change and abandon him.

Another theme of this poem is the sensuality and overall fickleness of women. He has them in their innocence and watches them grow “wild” and eventually abandon him. He sarcastically acknowledges their “kindness” at the end, in reality implying that they’ve become loose.

Subject

The subjects of this poem are the narrator’s love interests. He speaks in the first stanza of multiple women and his general experiences with them. Then in the second stanza, he introduces a specific case and describes how this particular female abandons him in the third stanza.

Lyric

This poem is a lyric because it has a consistent rhyme structure and does not tell a story.

Voice

Tone

The tone of this poem is veiled disdain, which is exposed through the author’s ability to softly mitigate the heartbreak imposed upon him by the women in his past. The poet expresses denunciation towards his ex-lovers, marking their newfound “newfangleness” as something that, despite the pain it caused him, the women were entitled to. The sarcasm in his final two lines reveal his anger, as he adds ironically “But since that I so kindely am served,/I fain would know what she hath deserved.” This implies that the woman he has fallen for acts as though she has done him a great favor, and he was lucky to have ever made her acquaintance. In reality, however, she has crushed him, and he has no choice other than to recover from it on his own. His bitterness is made evident by those last two lines, along with all of the heartbreak and disdain that he so expertly buried in prior lines.

Persona

This poem is in first person, with frequent use of the word “I”. The narrator is assumed to be male because the author is male and the poem is most likely personal to him, though there is no explicit evidence that proves this. The narrator tells of women of his past, and his most recent heartbreak. It’s suspected that the author takes on no persona at all, and that this is written as an explicit message to a woman in his past.

Verbal Irony

The last two lines contain verbal irony, when the narrator sarcastically states, “But since that I so kindely am served, I fain would know what she hath deserved.” He’s implying that the woman who broke his heart think she can do whatever she wants because she was wonderful to him and gave him a great ‘service’ of some sort, when in reality he considered sexual relations with her to be love-making, and thought that he deserved to be with her because he had treated her so nicely before she had gone wild. She thinks she deserves more than him, and decides to sleep around with many other men.

Diction

The diction is mostly concrete. Words are used to create mental images as opposed to imaginable appeal to senses.

For example, Line 11: “when her loose gown from her shoulders did fall..." In this case, “loose gown”, “shoulders”, and “fall” help create a vivid mental image.

Allusion

Allusion can be found in line 5. The speaker refers to a “danger” that his lovers are placed in. This alludes to the social blow they would receive, labeling them as “sinners” during the time.

Word Order

Wyatt uses inverted syntax in this poem. The words are in an order not used with the typical vernacular of today. Examples are “she me caught” (line 12) and “I so kindely am served” (line 20).

Level Of Usage

Wyatt uses a specialized and complex vocabulary. This combined with concrete diction creates powerful writing. Strong words such as “Stalking” and “guise” bring the piece to an elevated level of diction.

Saying and Suggesting

Denotation

Connotation

Positive

Gentle: having a mild and kind nature or manner

Tame: no longer wild; friendly toward people; docile

Meek: showing mildness or quietness of nature

Thanked: showing appreciation

Gentleness: softness; with care

Fortune: the only ‘randomly’ capitalized word in the poem, suggests that the author believes in a capital-G God of some sort; good Fortune, luck, faith

Special: extraordinary, rare

Thin array: fine, expensive, or impressive

Pleasant: enjoyable, good-natured, friendly, kind, bringing feelings of pleasure, enjoyment, or satisfaction

Sweetly: tasting or smelling of sugar; opposite of bitter/salty; fresh; pleasing to the senses

Kiss: an act of love or affection

Softly: gently, with care, lightly

Dear: a term of endearment; “Dear heart”, showing affection

Negative

Flee: run away; abandon; escape

Wild: not tame or domesticated; in its natural state; unruly

Danger: exposure or vulnerability to harm, injury, or loss

Range: suggests that the women are ‘getting around’ and seeing quite a lot of men

Busily: suggests that the women are ‘getting around’ and seeing quite a lot of men

Strange: weird, out of place, wrong

Forsaking: giving up on someone

Leave: masks the heartbreak; author really wants to use a more painful word such as “abandon” or “desert”

Go: leaving, abandoning

Newfangleness: she wants new, better things

Kindely: used sarcastically; he had been unjustly treated

Fain: used sarcastically; he’s not actually happy or eager to give her what she thinks she deserves

Deserved: expresses bitterness that he was not enough for the woman

Shifts In Connotation

The author begins the poem with a negative connotation using words such as “flee” and “stalking,” telling of women who have left him after they’ve lost their innocence. As the poem presses forward, he becomes nostalgic for one moment with a woman, a special moment, and in the entire second stanza he uses positive words like “sweetly” and “pleasant” and “softly.” However, to emphasize the tragedy of his loss of love, a blunter shift in connotation takes place at the beginning of the third stanza, and it’s filled with negative words like “forsaking,” “newfangleness,” and the harsh sarcasm in what would otherwise be very pleasant words such as “kindely” and “fain” and “served.”

Imagery

Effect

The imagery in this poem helps to reflect the intimate and racy instances between the narrator and his mistress or prostitute.

There's primarily visual imagery, but also some auditory imagery.

VISUAL IMAGERY

Certain words stick out to give the reader an idea of what is going on in the storyline.

1. First Stanza:

a. “naked foot stalking”

• Naked raises suspicions of nudity and sex, and the stalking creates an image of someone sneaking stealthily through his home

b. “gentle, tame, and meek”

• Gentle, tame, and meek reflect the innocence the narrator once saw in his mistress before he knew them

c. “they are now wild”

• Wild reflects how the narrator views mistresses before he did business with them his mistresses after

2. Second Stanza:

a. “pleasant guise”

• Guise means appearance or costume

b. “her loose gown from her shoulders did fall”

• Her gown was loose (like she is) and came off, leaving her naked

c. “she me caught her arms long and small”

• She was thin and wrapped her slender arms around him

d. “sweetly did me kiss”

• They kissed sweetly

AUDITORY IMAGERY

The mistress spoke once but it adds to the intimacy shared between two people.

Second Stanza

“And softly said, 'Dear heart, how like you this?'”

-She spoke softly

There is no olfactory imagery.

There is no gustatory imagery.

There is no tactile imagery.

Figures of Speech

Metaphor

First Stanza

• “That sometime they put themselves in danger to take bread at my hand”
• Similar to an animal having to take caution from taking bread from a human’s hands, lovers put themselves in danger taking money from a man’s hands, which could ruin their reputation (this is the danger taking money from a man’s hands, which could ruin their reputation (this is the danger they face).

Overstatement

Third Stanza

• “And I have leave to go, of her goodness, and she also to use newfangleness. But since that I so kindely am served, I fain would know what she hath deserved.”
• These lines are used sarcastically and reflect the negative attitude toward the mistress.

Pun

Third Stanza

• “…I lay broad waking.”
• “Broad” may be a pun implying that the woman subject is a sensual being with a wide range of interests in men, while he’s literally wide awake.

Synecdoche

First Stanza

• “With naked foot stalking…”
• The author uses the part “naked foot” to imply the whole: a naked person.

There are no similies.

There is no personification.

There is no understatement.

There is no paradox.

Alliteration

An example of alliteration in this poem is in line 17, where the author writes “fashion of forsaking.”

Assonance

Line one has an example of assonance. “They flee from me, that sometime did me seek.” The assonance can he found in the “e” sound.

Rhyme Scheme

Rime scheme – ABABBCC, if is often considered to be “rhyme royal” which is made of seven lines of ABABBCC in iambic pentameter.

There are some off rhymes to carry on the rhyme scheme of the poem, such as “chamber” with “remember” and “danger” in the first stanza, or “special’ with “fall” and “small” in the second, and “gentleness” with “newfangleness” and “goodness” in the third.

Mixture of Masuline and Feminine Rhyming

Masculine rhymes are “seek” with “meek” and “range” with “change” in the first stanza. In the second stanza there was “otherwise” with “guise”, “small” with “fall”, and “kiss” with “this.” In the final stanza there was “served” with “deserved.”

The only feminine rhyming was in the third stanza, where the author rhymed “waking” with “forsaking,” matching the final two syllables in both words to form the rhyme, not just one last syllable like in the masculine rhymes.

The only true mixture occurs in the third stanza where both masculine and feminine rhymes are used.

There is no internal rhyme scheme.

There's no...

Euphony

Cacophony

Onomatopoeia

Consonance

...in this poem

Rhythm

Stress

Stress throughout the poem is primarily iambic. It begins, “they FLEE from ME, that SOMEtime DID me SEEK/with NAked FOOT stalkING in MY chamBER.”

Scansion

| They fleE | from mE, | that somE | time diD | me seeK, |

| With nA | ked fooT | stalkinG | in mY | chambeR. |

| I | have seeN | them, genT | le, tamE, | and meeK, |

| That noW | are wI | ld, anD | do noT | remeB | beR |

| That somE | time theY | put theM | selves iN | dangeR |

| To takE | bread aT | my hanD; | and noW | they rangE, |

| BusI | ly seekinG | with coN | tinU | al changE. |

End Stop Meter

The end of each meter is not stressed in this poem. It happens in the first line: “They flee from **me**, that sometime did me **seek**…” At the end of these particular meters, the reader must take a pause, but at others the poem flows forward with few syllable-induced pauses.

End Stop Line

This poem has a few end stop lines at the beginnings and ends of each stanza, where the reader is forced to pause at the end of a line before continuing. For example, “But since that I so kindely am **served**,/I fain would know what she hath **deserved**.”

Monosyllabic Foot

This is when the line ends with a word containing only one syllable. This occurs in lines 1 and 3 (“seek” and “meek”) and quite frequently after that. For example, line 13 is “And there with all sweetly did me kiss….”

Spondee

This is when the line ends in a two syllable word. This occurs far more frequently throughout “They flee from me” than the monosyllabic feet. Lines 2 and 5 contain spondees, ending with “chamber” and “danger.” Another example is line 15: “It was no dream, I lay broad waking.”

Caesura

There are a few pauses in the middle of lines. In line one, “They flee from me, || that sometime did me seek…” Another example is line 14, “And softly said, || ‘Dear heart, || how like you this?”

Iambic Pentameter

The majority of this poem is written in iambic pentameter. There are usually five feet per line, and each foot contains an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. “They FLEE | from ME | that SOME | time DID | me SEEK.” Some parts of the poem contain anapestic feet (like |BusI | **ly seekinG** | with coN | tinU | al changE”) which contain two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

Accentual Meter

This poem is not accentual meter because it does not contain a consistent rhythm. It changes frequently from 9 to 10 to 11 syllables per line and is not iambic throughout, therefore not wholly reliant upon stressed and unstressed syllables.

Closed Form, Open Form

The rhyme and meter follow a pattern throughout the majority of the poem validating that this is a closed form poem. It follows an ABABBCC rhyme scheme.

This poem does not contain any couplets.

This poem does not contain any quatrains.

Most lines of this poem contain a syllabic verse of ten syllables, with some slightly shorter and only nine syllables, and others slightly longer with eleven.

This poem is broken into three stanzas.

This poem is not a sonnet.

This poem does not contain any octaves.

Each stanza consists of seven lines, making them all septets.

The structured rhyme scheme and meter help the poem flow easily. The syllabic verse creates an underlining beat when read. This adds to the poetic nature of the poem.

Thank you for your time.

Thomas Wyatt [1503-1542]

Rhyme

Off or Slant Rhymes

(cc) photo by theaucitron on Flickr

Sound

There is no metonymy.

Fortune

Fain

happily; compelled, forced by an obligation or circumstances to do something

fate, luck; in the poem it is capitalized, suggesting he believes in a capital-G God of some sort

Range

Hath

refers to the wide range of men the women now see

had

Meek

Guise

showing mildness or quietness of nature

a false outward appearance; a costume

Array

fine, expensive, or impressive clothes

Kindely

kindly

Broad waking

wide awake

Newfangleness

not an actual word; derived from newfangled, meaning puzzlingly new or different

Thorough*

Forsaking

through

to abandon, to withdraw companionship, protection, or support from somebody

Words