“They Flee From Me” Summary

“They Flee From Me” Themes

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  Love and Relationships

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “They Flee From Me”

• Lines 1-2

  They flee from me that sometime did me seek
  With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-7

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 8-11

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-14

  And she me caught in her arms long and small;
  Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
  And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-21

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“They Flee From Me” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Hyperbole

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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“They Flee From Me” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Flee
• Sometime
• Seek
• Naked Foot
• Chamber
• Meek
• Themself
• Range
• Hath
• Thin Array
• Guise
• Therewithal
• Thorough
• Have Leave
• Newfangleness
• Fain

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “They Flee From Me”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“They Flee From Me” Speaker

“They Flee From Me” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “They Flee From Me”

More “They Flee From Me” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Out Loud — Hear the poem read by actor Andrew Scott.  

  • Wyatt's Life and Work — Learn more about Wyatt at the Poetry Foundation.

  • Love Poetry During the Renaissance — An article from the British Library that looks at the work of poets like Wyatt and John Donne. 

  • The Egerton Manuscript — A compilation of poems made during Henry VIII's reign, including some poems written in Wyatt's own hand.  

  • "Whoso List to Hunt" — An interesting article about another of Wyatt's poems, offering insight into the relationship between his poetry and Petrarch's. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Sir Thomas Wyatt

  • I Find No Peace

  • Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind