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;
Therewithall 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.
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Photo: Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, rumored to have been a mistress of Sir Thomas Wyatt.
I've written elsewhere about my first college poetry class, where I learned the basics of reading poems (the sentences, the phrases, the narrative, if any) and of analyzing them (historical period, type of poem, meter, diction, literal meaning and symbolism, etc.) Mr. Spanos spent what felt like weeks on this widely anthologized poem from the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt. I'm sure the sheer repetition of reading and hearing these lines-- individual lines, particular words--in that class, partly accounts for how memorable this poem remains for me. But there's more to it than that.
We read it partly in historical context. In poetry, its rhyme scheme is the relatively new "rhyme royal," popularized by Chaucer, one of Wyatt's models. It is as well a prominent example of iambic pentameter, which became the meter most often used in English language poetry, possibly because it's a natural reflection of spoken English and English sentences.
In social history, its context is Tudor court life and the courtly love tradition. I've forgotten what Mr. Spanos claimed it says on this subject, so I've lost one sense of the poem. But it still makes sense anyway, for how it expresses a recurrent situation: that is, if it were a country music tune, it would be "another somebody done somebody wrong song." Though its expression remains a good deal more elegant.
Fickleness, betrayal, and a lover's bitterness at being rejected for the very qualities that were once so attractive--very lively topics for undergraduates, as well as before college years and for long after.
Mr. Spanos inveighed against reading poems just to latch on to some feeling, without knowing what they actually say. But I--and probably we--read poems that way anyway, at least partly. So even though I learned that the lines "But all is turned thorough my gentleness/ Into a strange fashion of forsaking" have a specific historical meaning (something to do with "gentleness" in the sense of "gentry"), the meaning that seemed specific to my life that first occurred to me is the one that still remains.
Similarly, the lines "and now they range,/Busily seeking with a continual change" had a particular historical meaning as well as a particular function in the poem's narrative or argument, according to Mr. Spanos. But they remain broadly suggestive as well as a bit mysterious, reflecting what is simply true: people respond to literature as it touches feelings, observations, events, persons and even places in their own lives. Go to any bookstore reading and hear audience questions and comments. It's just true. Some poets as well as fictionists, moviemakers and even actors acknowledge that the meaning of their works is at least largely in the receiver, not only in the intentions or references of the maker.
The contemporary power of the language in this poem suggests some of the mystery of poetry. For one thing, these are not the actual words that Wyatt used--they are at best the modern spellings. Wyatt's first verse was actually:
They fle from me that sometyme did me seke
With naked fote stalking in my chambre.
I have sene theim gentill, tame, and meke
That nowe are wyld and do not remembre
That sometyme they put theimself in daunger
To take bred at my hand; and nowe they raunge
Besely seking with a continuell chaunge.
The different spelling suggests the very different sounds, and therefore the rhythms within the lines. The music is different, and yet the music of the modern version is one of its strongest attractions. Many word choices, which may have seemed standard at the time (who knows, really?) now are unusual enough to make for striking and memorable combinations, even though we know what they mean ( It was no dream: I lay broad waking.) Even the most unusual word (the Chaucerian "newfangleness") survived long enough (with slight variation) to be broadly understandable, if a bit old fashioned.
The first part of the poem in particular employs the metaphor of an animal on the hunt, though "stalking" has a different resonance now. As undergrads our favorite lines of course were:
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;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, ‘Dear heart, how like you this?’
And it must be said that as evoking this situation, these lines have rarely been equaled. Perhaps that's why this poem by the ambassador and politician close to the crown, Sir Thomas Wyatt, was not published under his name in his lifetime.
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