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