flee+analysis

=Poetry Analysis=

 Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote //They Flee From Me// in the mid-1500s in England. In his poem, Wyatt provides an account of his experiences and relationships with his lovers and comments on the dual nature of women with references to animals and nature. In the first stanza, Wyatt describes the bitter, unrewarding relationship between himself and the lovers. His lovers used to seek him to engage in sexual pleasures with him, but they now stealthily flee his presence. He remembers them as being at first “gentle tame and meek”, visiting him on a regular basis as a proper mistress would to a master. However, now they have become “wild” in that they do not heed his will any more. Since they now no longer heed him, he says they have forgotten the intimacy they used to have with him when they were his dutiful mistresses and took “bread” (sexual pleasure) at his hand. But now they have revealed their inconstancy and seek pleasure with other men. Wyatt describes them as “busily seeking with continual change.” Wyatt uses the imagery of women as animals to describe his relationships with them. He describes his lovers with various terms that suggest this, such as gentle, tame, meek, and wild. Deer and does in particular are often described as “gentle tame and meek” in their apparent graceful, soft, and timid nature. The description of “wild” certainly suggests that these women no longer remember their profound and intimate relationship with Wyatt and are no longer faithful to him as a trained, loved pet or animal should be faithful to its master, and so are accordingly said to be “wild”. Another reference to Wyatt’s clear usage of animal metaphors is when his lovers used to take “bread” at his hand. This imagery alternately conjures the relationship of an animal and its master, the animal eating food at the master’s hand. The relationship between an animal and a human is built up with trust, which Wyatt suggests holds true between lovers, and particularly with women. Therefore, when he states that they once took bread at his hand, it is meant that his lovers once trusted him but now have forgotten all of their emotional ties to him. Also, the image of the master that feeds animals with food from his hand portrayed in the poem seems to be subtly referring to the idiom “bite the hand that feeds you.” This idiomatic phrase is used to describe those who are thankless and do not appreciate the help and efforts of those who support them, a situation which Wyatt seems to believe is similar to the ingratitude and inconstancy of his former lovers. In the first stanza, Wyatt’s imagery compares women to animals in their mannerism and behavior in his description of his lovers’ nature, their trust in him, and their abandonment. In the second stanza, Wyatt describes a particularly gratifying, unusual, and unique sexual experience he encounters with one woman (described by “once in special”) after many other lovers have passed. She comes to him in “thin array”, an attractive, thin, gauzy dress, and with very pleasing behavior, both of which are suggested by “pleasant guise.” She allows her clothes to fall away, holds him in her arms, “sweetly” kisses him, and then says, “Dear heart, how like you this?”

In the second stanza, a completely different sentiment is seen in Wyatt’s portrayal of this singular woman. In the previous stanza, Wyatt says that women are inconstant and unreliable like animals and considers them as the inferior sex. He upholds the traditional roles of men being the superior partner in a sexual relationship and women being the inferior partner. This is especially apparent in the imagery that portrays him as a civilized human or master taming and earning the trust of a wild animal. In the second stanza, the actions of the woman taking of her own clothes, holding him in her arms, and kissing him are all very bold, assertive actions that suggest that the woman is the superior in this situation. This suggests that she is now the one providing him with sexual pleasure which he earlier suggested was given by him to his lovers. The woman’s superiority is very clearly supported in her words, “Dear heart, how like you this?” First of all, her rhetorical question is very assertive and suggests that she is the person in control in this relationship. Also, Wyatt uses irony in a pun he makes between “dear” and “heart” because a “hart” is a deer. This is not only a pun but also subtly suggests that she is calling him the “deer” in this relationship, another important reference to animals, a theme in this poem. Earlier, Wyatt compared his previous lovers to deer in their timidity, inconstancy, and inferior role. However, here it appears that the traditional roles of men and women are switched as his lover is the leader and he is the seduced. Wyatt shows another side of the nature of women in his portrayal of a bold, assertive, superior lover who causes him to now to take the seduced, inferior role in his continued reference to animals. In the third stanza, Wyatt continues to describe the relationship between him and this specific lover. Their relationship seems to become genuine, courtly love, “a strange fashion of forsaking,” when he is gentle with her. He is given permission to leave by her and presumably pursue other women, and he says that she also has inconstant sexual relationships with men (“newfangleness”). Also, because he is so “kindly” served by her, he would love to know what or who would have been good enough to please her completely, “what she hath deserved.” Wyatt makes many more subtle comments on the nature of women in the third stanza. In “a strange fashion of forsaking,” “forsaking” is used as complete abandonment of inhibition or restrain in their love. The use of this word seems to be showing a contrast between this definition and the other definition of abandonment as seen in his previous lovers. It seems to be used in this context to show the differences between his initial lovers and this particular lover. Wyatt uses more irony in this stanza in “I have leave to go of her goodness”. This is ironic because the fact that he is given her permission to leave is, again, switching the traditional roles of men and women in sexual relationships and shows how this woman has a very different relationship from all his other lovers with him. In the third stanza, Wyatt shows the contrast of the dual nature of women with one behavior being inconstant and wild like that of an animal and the other being strong, bold, and assertive like that of a master in his usage of “forsaking” and his use of irony. In //They Flee From Me//, Wyatt begins in complaint against his previous lovers. He accuses them of once being “gentle tame and meek” as a deer and taking “bread” at his hand like faithful pets but then turning against him in their inconstancy, seeking “continual change” and going “wild” like an unfaithful animal. He also talks about a very assertive, bold woman who takes control of their relationship and makes him feel like the gentle, timid animal or deer in the relationship and who becomes the superior, like the master or owner of the animal (himself). Through his experience and commentary, Wyatt portrays two very different and opposite natures of women as lovers through references and comparisons to the behavior of animals. home