Starting with the volta in stanza 9, the poem takes a
more personal turn from describing diurnal chivalric
activities in a stylized way to expressing personal grief.
Mentioning the nights the two spent together in “sweet
accord” (l. 35), Surrey goes on to describe “The secret
thoughts imparted with such trust, / The wanton talk,
the divers change of play, / The friendship sworn, each
promise sworn.. .” (ll. 37–39). The closeness of the
personal relationship is emphasized, as well as the
inviolable world that has passed with Richmond’s
death.
Stanza 12 marks a shift in the poem’s language and
is Surrey’s APOSTROPHE to Windsor Castle. The abrupt
change in diction results in an unsatisfactory ending to
an elegy but can also reinforce the love poem reading.
The fi nal stanzas echo the lament of GEOFFREY CHAU-
CER’s Troilus for the lost Criseyde with its connection
between place and person. This echo both connects
the end of the poem to the allusion to Troy in line 4
and indicates the depth of the relationship between
Surrey and Richmond.
At the end Surrey fully recognizes the horrible real-
ity of his condition. The fi nal couplet offers comfort
that is no comfort at all: His pain at the loss of his
dear friend and possible lover and the loss of a way of
life will offer relief from the much lesser grief of his
incarceration.
FURTHER READING
Guy-Bray, Stephen. “ ‘We Two Boys Together Clinging’: The
Earl of Surrey and the Duke of Richmond.” English Studies
in Canada 21, no. 2 (1995): 138–150.
Sessions, William A. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Twayne’s
English Authors Series. Boston: Twayne, 1986.
Leah Larson
“SOMETIME I FLED THE FIRE” SIR
THOMAS WYATT (ca. 1532–1533) In this EPIGRAM,
the speaker celebrates his freedom from a lady he once
loved. While he claims that he now “follow[s] the coals
that be quent” (l. 3) and that “desire is both sprung and
spent” (l. 5), SIR THOMAS WYATT’s characteristic bitter-
ness does not entirely let the former object of his affec-
tions off the hook. The ambiguous fi nal COUPLET, “And
all his labor now he laugh to scorn, / Meshed in the
briars that erst was all to-torn,” (ll. 7–8) can be read
two ways. The speaker may either be declaring his
release from the “briars” that once injured him, or he
may be ironically observing that he is still caught in her
snares, although this time without even the cold com-
fort of unrequited love, as his feelings for her have
died.
Critics may disagree about the exact nature of the
relationship depicted in the poem, but they largely
agree that the lady in question is Anne Boleyn. As a
diplomat, Wyatt was probably in HENRY VIII’s or Anne’s
retinue when the couple met with Francis I of France
at Calais in 1532. The speaker’s insistence that he has
followed the ashes of his former fi re “from Dover to
Calais, against my mind” makes this reading attractive
(l. 4). Neither historians nor literary critics have ever
been able to prove a romantic relationship between
Wyatt and Anne, but circumstantial evidence suggests
that it may have at least been possible. Their back-
ground as childhood neighbors, their proximity at
Henry’s court, and Wyatt’s imprisonment with Anne’s
alleged lovers all provide an intriguing backdrop for
poems such as “WHOSO LIST TO HUNT” and “Sometime
I Fled the Fire.” Certainly Wyatt’s poetic skill would
have assured him a place in the ranks of esteemed
Tudor poets without Anne Boleyn. However, the bio-
graphical narrative of lost love and courtly ambition
will most likely always be a favorite with readers and
critics, and it may even generate an interest in poems
such as “Sometime I Fled the Fire” that they might not
otherwise have received.
FURTHER READING
Southall, Raymond. The Courtly Maker: An Essay on the
Poems of Wyatt and His Contemporaries. New York: Barnes
& Noble, 1964.
Carol D. BlosserSONNET From Italian Sonetto for “little song,” a
sonnet is a 14-line poem, usually in IAMBIC PENTAMETER,
that follows various rhyme schemes. The sonnet was
developed in 12th or 13th-century Italy, but reached
its zenith in the 14th century in the works of PETRARCH.
Conventional sonnets deal with the subject of ideal-
ized, unrequited love. As well, typical sonnet devicesSONNET 419