Sir Thomas Wyatt has the distinction of having his name
related to Anne Boleyn as a potential lover, being imprisoned in the tower, yet
surviving. Wyatt was reintroduced to King Henry VIII’s court. He became an ambassador
to France. His marriage was unhappy because of his wife’s infidelity. From his affair,
a son was born.
In his spare time, Wyatt wrote his
poetry. “They Flee from Me” portrays an older Don Juan who suffers
from rebuffs by his lovers. He faces his rejection with great
sadness.
The poem is narrated in first person point of
view. The narrator is possibly the poet himself. This man lives in a male dominated
society. The men held all of the power. Understanding a woman’s refusal of his
attention was difficult for the speaker to
understand.
Promiscuity was the name of the game in Henry’s
court. Men were married but usually had mulitiple affairs or a mistress. Women also
had affairs inside the confines of marriage. Often, the women suffered for their sexual
trysts with their heads or by abandonment by their
husbands.
The setting of the story is the bed chamber of
the speaker. Apparently, there has been a constant flow of women into his bed. Now, no
one comes.
1st stanza
The
women who lovingly visited his chamber now hurry away from the speaker. They came to
him barefooted. There were various types: gentle, tame, and meek. These same women are
now wild and no longer remember him. At one time, they endangered themselves to share
his bed and eat from his hand. Sadly for the speaker, they seek
change.
2nd stanza
Thanked be to fortune it hath been
otherwise,
Twenty times better; but once in
special…
The speaker thanks
his good luck in having had these experiences that were wonderful. However, he
remembers one encounter that was extremely special to him. This lady was dressed in a
thin covering that exposed her to the speaker. When she took off her gown, the woman
hugged the man close to her and kissed him softly. She said to him, “Dear heart, how
like you this?”
3rd
stanza
This memory was not a dream. Everything has
changed. She has forsaken the narrator despite his gentle treatment of her. This lady
has dismissed him because she enjoys new things and lovers. Apparently, this woman is
fickle and prefers to bed men that she fancies. The speaker has lost his place in her
life. He would like to think that it is his gentle nature that has turned her
aside.
Thematically, there are a number of issues that
Wyatt alludes to in his poem. Sexuality and his sexual encounters are at the center of
the poem. He also reminiscences about abandonment and the women that once came to him
that are nowhere to be found. In fact, he feels as though they run from him when he is
enters the room.
In addition, the speaker lives in a time
when men were the ones who usually chose their lovers. Caught in a new circumstance,
the speaker finds himself in a quandary about what has happened to his love
life.
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