WYATT’s poetry, the date of composition of this poem
is uncertain since none of Wyatt’s poetry was pub-
lished during his lifetime. Fifteen years after his death,
97 poems attributed to Wyatt appeared in the collec-
tion Songs and Sonnets (better known as TOTTEL’S MIS-
CELLANY) gathered and published by Richard Tottel in
- Although Wyatt deliberately wrote in a rough,
plain style that was more concerned with expression
than with smooth meters, by the time the poems were
published, that style was considered unsophisticated;
thus, Tottel, or perhaps one of his assistants, “smoothed
out” Wyatt’s poems. In this case, Tottel even renamed
it: “The Lover Showeth How He Is Forsaken of Such as
He Sometime Enjoyed.” The original text of this poem
can be found in London’s British Library MS 2711,
known as the Edgerton manuscript. Both Wyatt’s orig-
inal and Tottel’s “improved” version are composed in
RHYME ROYAL.
Wyatt chose the words in this poem deliberately
and carefully. In the fi rst seven-line STANZA, he begins
by describing his amorous conquests in HENRY VIII’s
court. He seeks out many mistresses who often become
vulnerable and attached to him. The timid women
approach his chamber apprehensively, knowing that
they put themselves “in danger,” certainly emotionally
and possibly physically, by being there. Still, he man-
ages to tame them, so that they become “gentle” and
“take bread” from his hand. He gentles them by being
gentle to them, but he will not remain constant;
instead, he seeks out the “continual change” of new
sexual adventures. They also, apparently, learn the
delights of love from him and go away to “range,” seek-
ing their own new affairs.
In the second stanza, however, the seducer becomes
the seduced. A delicate woman seeks him out, and
they become lovers at her initiative. However, the
unthinkable happens—he is “caught” by her, as the
other “wild ones” were caught by him before. She takes
his power and his love. The once-virile man lies in his
chamber as a beautifully dressed woman approaches,
disrobes before him, and bends down to kiss him.
Afterward, she asks, softly, “Dear heart, how like you
this?” (l. 14). She is sexually knowledgeable and knows
where his pleasure lies. She has taken over his role of
demonstrating pleasure to a lover.
The third stanza highlights the speaker’s betrayal.
He lies awake wondering if the situation is even real,
and just when he decides it is, the lady gives him “leave
to go.” In doing so, she grants both of them permission
to practice “newfangleness,” which he has done him-
self many times in the past. No longer “caught,” the
speaker should be relieved. Instead, he is bitter: “But
since that I so kindely am served,” he writes (l. 20). In
these ironic words, the speaker acknowledges that he
has been as considerately served as his past lovers, but
that still does nothing to soothe his ego. He is left won-
dering how to deal with this role reversal, as the aban-
doner becomes the abandoned.
The imagery Wyatt employs also recalls the animal
world. In the fi rst stanza, the women the speaker dal-
lies with are referred to simply as “they” and “them,”
grouping them together into a generic mass that is
barely human. The women’s human qualities become
further depleted by the other words applied to them
such as tame and wild. Even their actions are those of
the animal world—they “take bread at my hand,”
“stalk,” and “range.” More specifi cally, several of the
images can be connected to falconry, one of the popu-
lar aristocratic sports in early modern England. Falcons
were controlled through the use of jesses, or strips of
leather tied around their legs and feet, which were
called stalks. A bird with a “naked leg,” such as the
women in the fi rst stanza had, was considered tame.
Other images can be connected with hunting as well.
The verb seek implies looking for game, and “caught” in
the second stanza signals the result of the hunt. The
lady’s phrase “dear heart” may also be read as a play on
“hart,” meaning a stag, the grandest prize of the hunt. A
recent critic has suggested that this particular pun sug-
gests the overlapping of gender: As female deer and
male hart, the poet is both the passive recipient of love
and the active model for the lover. The sense of activity
and passivity is heightened by the repetition of images
of freeing and binding. In the initial stanza, the speaker
is free while the women are “tame” (bound), but in the
next stanza, he is “caught” by the free woman in her
loose gown. He becomes more ensnared as the affair
progresses, but she soon gives him “leave to go.” The
poem ends with both of them having freedom, although
only one party desires it.434 “THEY FLEE FROM ME”