#theyfleefromme

Sir Thomas Wyatt is known for being a great english poet from the 16th century. His career was created in the vicious currents of Renaissance courts. For years Sir Thomas Wyatt made many remarkable achievements in poetry, his sophisticated taste shaped all of his crafted pieces. The story of Sir Thomas was very dramatized, in the short lyric poem They Flee From Me, it portrays the drama that was at the courts and all of his personal relationships.  This is one of Sir Thomas Wyatt's best known poems that is about an unknown “they” who is running away from him. It is interpreted that the “they” Sir Thomas Wyatt is referring to is his affairs he had with women on the court of Henry VII. 

They Flee From Me is a twenty one line poem with three short stanzas that represent a first person point of view, as in many of Sir Thomas Wyatt's poems this point of view comes from a dramaticized persona. This rhyme royal written by Sir Thomas Wyatt has its unique structure, rhythm and tone. Sir Thomas Wyatt uses a seven line structure for this poem, each line contains five sets of two beats. The first line is stressed while the second line is unstressed. They Flee From Me reflects on Sir Thomas Wyatt's personal life, that's what makes this poem so interesting. It is telling a hidden story about Wyatt’s affairs on the courts. This short poem connects to the sonnet Whoso List to Hunt as well. Whoso List to Hunt and They Flee From Me both have the same motifs about women being portrayed as wild, dangerous and unpredictable. Sir Thomas Wyatt also portrays the tameness and gentleness of women in his short poem. These representations of women are expressed through rhyme. 

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek     1

With naked foot stalking in my chamber.

I have seen them gentle, tame and meek.              3

The rhyme presented is the first stanza, right from the start Sir Thomas Wyatt registers a bitter tone towards a woman who has left him. It is clear that this complaining and criticizing persona is upset because a woman has chosen another lover over him. This persona is not necessarily Sir Thomas Wyatt himself, but it is believed to be referencing him and his personal experiences on the court of Henry VII. In the second stanza, there is a wistful tone portrayed, Wyatt’s persona reflects on the past with his lover.

Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise         8

Twenty times better; but once in special,

In thin array, after a pleasant guise,                    10

Once again through rhyme, Wyatt explains how his lover used to love and seduce him, it seems like Wyatt is filled with regret and realizes he loves that woman. He also includes a hyperbole by saying “Twenty times better; but once in special (line 9). This line exaggerates the love he once had. Wyatt then ends off this stanza quoting words his lover once said “Dear heart, how you like this?” (line 14). In the final stanza Wyatt brings the bitter and criticizing tone back once he starts to think about his present life to his past with his lover, he realizes it was no dream for him and there was no love. Sir Thomas Wyatt did an excellent job at representing a steady tone throughout the poem, the switch of tones in the second stanza helps the readers understand how the persona is really feeling as they reflect on their lover.

The word choice and phrases that Sir Thomas Wyatt chooses for this short lyric poem helps emphasize the bitter and regretful tone portrayed in each stanza. Starting in line 2, “With naked foot stalking in my chamber” this means walking softly. Wyatt uses a language that can be considered lyrical. In line 19, towards the end of the poem the poet uses the word “newfangleness” this means fickleness. The use of this word choice introduces the reader to the old english language Wyatt is known for and the unloyalty he had felt when his lover had left him.