This poem explores a man's confusion over women who once sought his affection but now flee from him. The speaker describes one woman in particular who seemed devoted but is now acting in a "strange fashion" by forsaking him. He questions what she deserves for this change in behavior. The poem reflects the uncertainty experienced by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who faced changing fortunes under King Henry VIII and was rumored to be Anne Boleyn's lover before her execution.

1. They Flee From Me, That Sometime Did Me
Seek
Sir Thomas Wyatt
artmagick.com

2. Sir Thomas Wyatt
1503-1542
 Wyatt served under the reign of
King Henry VIII.
 Since the Tudor reign was
enmeshed in infidelities as
evidenced by the king, Wyatt most
likely engaged in similar behavior
(as this poem suggests).
 Wyatt was also rumored be Anne
Boleyn's lover, for which he spent
a month in the Tower of London
until she was executed for
adultery. (Boleyn was the king’s
second wife.)
 Over his lifetime, Wyatt was in and
out of favor with the king and in
and out of prison.
 His poetry, lyrics, and satires
reflect his life’s experiences.

3. o Wyatt , along with Henry
Howard, the Earl of
Surrey, is credited with
introducing the sonnet;
consequently, both men
share the title “father of
the English sonnet.”
o Wyatt wrote imitations of
Petrarch’s sonnets, one of
which was Whoso List to
Hunt after Petrarch’s Una
candida cerva; however,
Wyatt’s version refers to
Anne Boleyn as the deer.
o Wyatt successfully used
other new forms, such as
terza rima and the
rondaeu.

4. They Flee From Me, That Sometime Did Me
Seek
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;
Therewith all 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 kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.

5. Structure
o The poem employs rime royal, a
seven-line structure using iambic
pentameter with the rhyme
scheme ABABBCC. (Each
stanza is like half of one sonnet.)
o The tercet and couplets
comprise lines 1-7 (ABA BB
CC); the quatrain and tercet, are
used in lines 8-14 and 15-21
(ABAB BCC).
o The poem presents three key
ideas.

6. Summary
 The speaker in this poem reverses
the usual male-female roles in
sexual liaisons by empowering the
women who are as promiscuous
as he.
 This reversal is reinforced by
comparing his conquests to prey,
which emphasizes the irony of his
surprise when the “prey” chooses
to remain free.
 As the speaker continues from the
general to the specific, he focuses
on one woman, perhaps Anne
Boleyn who married Henry VIII.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZY69fnpF8o&inde
x=19&list=UUAiABuhVSMZJMqyv4Ur5XqA

7. 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.
Note ambiguity of pronoun.
The “foot” alleviates
ambiguity of pronoun
and suggestions the
metaphor of a bird or
animal (“stalking,” and
“gentle, tame, and
meek.”
The use of assonance and consonance
reinforce the ease with which the
women/doe “flee.”
Contrast of past and
present behavior
reflects speaker’s
wounded nature.
The speaker derides women for “fleeing”
him—for remaining “wild.” Ironically, he
castigates these women for acting
naturally (“seeking…change”) for it was
their natures that allowed him to enjoy their
company. This enjambment highlights this
division.

8. 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;
Therewith all sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”Dialect reveals woman’s power over
speaker as the male seducer becomes the
seduced.
Fortune is personified to show speaker’s awareness that
his experiences with women were a result of luck, not
devotion.
Consonance of
the letter “t”
reinforces the
frequency of
the visits when
he believed that
“she” was
devoted to him.
“It” is another ambiguous reference to the
romantic visits (which were twenty times
better). The reference is unclear.
Diction, which is
stressed by the syntax,
reflects animal imagery. Alliteration stresses his memory of this
one encounter, this one woman.

9. 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 kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.
Diction suggests that
the woman is fickle.
“Kindly is used ironically and
leads to his use of “fain” as he
infers she “deserves”
punishment, which is contrary
to what a man in the same
position would “deserve.”
Speaker notes
that she took her
role from him
(“my
gentleness”). This
confuses him.
Does she
deserve kindness
or punishment?
He choses to ask
the reader.
He recognizes the woman as a person,
not a bird/deer, but the reversal of their
roles upsets him as “It was not dream.”
Speaker’s tone
could reflect
Wyatt’s affair
with Anne or
his wife’s
adultery.
Final couplet betrays
his emotional turmoil.

10. Tone
The speaker’s tone shifts from one of male arrogance to hurt pride. He questions the actions
of a female who acted like a male, which leads to a bewildered tone on his part.

11. Works Cited
 http://www.enotes.com/topics/they-flee-from-me
 http://www.gradesaver.com/collected-poems-of-sir-thomas-
wyatt/study-guide/section5/
 http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/poetry-analysis-they-
flee-from-me-by-sir-thomas-wyatt-8109/
 http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/wyattbio.htm
 http://www.shmoop.com/they-flee-from-me/summary.html
 https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem2407.ht
ml