They Flee from Me

"They Flee From Me" is a poem written by Thomas Wyatt.^[1] It is written in Rhyme royal and was included in Arthur Quiller-Couch's edition of the Oxford Book of English Verse.^[2] The poem has been described as possibly autobiographical, and referring to any one of Wyatt's affairs with high-born women of the court of Henry VIII, perhaps with Anne Boleyn.^[3]

They flee from me

They flee from me, that sometime did me seek

With naked foot stalking in my chamber.

I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek

That now are wild and do not remember

That sometime they put themself in danger

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

Busily seeking with a continual change.

Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise

Twenty times better; but once in special,

In thin array, after a pleasant guise,

When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,

And she me caught in her arms long and small,

Therewithal sweetly did me kiss

And softly said, "Dear heart, how like you this?"

It was no dream,I lay broad waking.

But all is turned, thorough my gentleness,

Into a strange fashion of forsaking;

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.^[4]

References

1. "Practical Criticism: Class 1". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. 1999. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
2. Ferry, Anne. Tradition and the Individual Poem: An Inquiry Into Anthologies. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804742351. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
3. Berry, Ralph (February 16, 2000). "Sonnets as autobiography". New Straits Times (via HighBeam Research). Retrieved 14 May 2012.(subscription required)
4. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Seventh Edition, Volume 1, 2000, Norton & Company, London

External links

• Poetry Intensive with Stephen Greenblatt from poetry.harvard.edu