Literary+devices+and+tools

=Literary Devices=

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 have put themselves 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, And 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 newfangledness. But since that I so kindly am served, I would fain know what she hath deserved.

Sir Thomas Wyatt uses irony in //They Flee From Me// in several areas. In line 14, the last line of the second stanza, his lover says "Dear heart, how like you this?" This is ironic because there is a pun between dear and heart because a "hart" is a deer. There is also irony present in line 18 in the third stanza where he says, "And I have leave to go of her goodness". This is ironic because his lover is servicing him in return for money and generally, according to the social structure of the time, the master had control of his mistresses. Here he states that he is given permission by his mistress to leave when in fact she should need his permission to leave.

Also, in the poem, Wyatt uses the description of his lovers as animals to compare himself with a master of beasts feeding his animals. Although the comparison is not necessarily overt, it is still clearly a metaphor.

In the last paragraph, Wyatt uses a considerable deal of sarcasm. when he says, "And I have leave to go of her goodness" he is remarking on the fact that, unlike before, when he was having one night stands with many lovers, she is in charge of him, not vice versa. he seems to be bemoaning the nature of courtly relationships, possibly stating his preference for purely sexual relationships. This is especially supported by the fact that his short marriage did not really last. He might be unveiling some of his feelings about his marriage here (see history). home