Often called Wyatt’s most original poem, “They Flee
from Me” constructs a sexually aggressive woman and
a nervous, hesitant male poet. The passive male is pur-
sued, teased, and mocked by the woman, who ulti-
mately rejects him after having had her way with him.
In undertaking the role of the pursuer, the woman
assumes the traditional male sexual role and symboli-
cally appropriates his penis, the symbol of his sexual
and social power. In doing so, she thus causes her
lover to be powerless and incapable of action—in a
sense, impotent.
Another hint about the speaker’s impotence can be
found in the second stanza, as the affair begins. Some
critics have pointed out that the question, “Dear heart,
how like you this?” contains not only a pun on heart/
hart but also a pun on dear/dire. In this case, dear refers
to a “romantic companion,” while dire recalls “language
art” or a “talker” (Italian). As a poet, the speaker is an
expert wordsmith, and in writing about his escapades,
his release of words has come to be aligned with sexual
release. However, at the end of this affair, the poet
becomes inarticulate, unable even to fashion a response
to his abandonment: “I fain would know what she doth
deserve” (l. 21). As a “dire” man, when the poet is out
of words, he is out of the sexual game and rendered
impotent.
The speaker, a 16th-century man, would have been
used to having power. When he loses control of the
love affair, he is left in complete confusion and disar-
ray. Her aggression cancels his dreams (he lays “broad
waking”) and his manliness (he is gentled). She is
indifferent to his feelings. When she lets him go to
move on, he remains “stuck.” He does understand that
he was “served,” but her service was rendered only for
her pleasure, not just for his, or even for their mutual
pleasure. In his mind, his service deserves and ought
to receive its reward, but the lady has reminded him,
quite forthrightly, that in the COURTLY^ LOVE game, the
lover is supposed to be lady’s servant and subject to
her whims. Thus, she has not only beaten him at his
own game, but has also shown him how he has been
playing the game incorrectly. Perhaps this is what
makes Wyatt’s poem so original and so memorable.
See also “WHOSO LIST TO HUNT.”
FURTHER READING
Daalder, Joost, ed. Sir Thomas Wyatt: Collected Poems.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Estrin, Barbara L. Laura: Uncovering Gender and Genre in
Wyatt, Donne, and Marvell. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univer-
sity Press, 1994.
LeVay, John P. “Wyatt’s ‘They Flee from Me.’ ” Explicator 41,
no. 1 (1982): 3–4.THREE ESTATES The traditional social classes
of feudal society were commonly referred to as the
Three Estates. The First Estate—bellatores, or “those
who fi ght”—included the aristocrats and knights; the
Second Estate—oratores, or “those who pray”—
included members of the clergy and monastic orders;
the Third Estate—laboratores, or “those who work”—
included everyone else. This classifi cation separated
people based on their function in society. This tripar-
tite stratifi cation is different from the traditional two
social classes found in Anglo-Saxon culture: eorls
(nobles) and ceorls (everyone else). Some scholars clas-
sify women as being outside the three-estate system
and call them the “fourth estate.” Others recognize that
women had a separate system, the so-called three fem-
inine estates of virgin (fi rst estate), widow (second
estate), and wife (third estate). These divisions are also
based on social function, though they are more specifi -
cally related to sexual function.
This traditional view, never completely defi nitive
anyway, began to break down seriously as the Middle
Ages drew to a close, the merchant classes grew wealth-
ier and more infl uential, and clerks—educated men
possibly in minor orders, but not true clergy—grew
more common. GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s The CANTERBURY
TALES is sometimes referred to as an estates satire
because it mockingly challenges the rigidity of the class
system. Nevertheless, all three estates are represented
within the narrative as a whole, and the order of pil-
grims in the GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY
TALES refl ects the traditional divisions.“THREE RAVENS, THE” (“THERE WERE
THREE RAVENS”) ANONYMOUS (before 1600)
A popular folk BALLAD fi rst published in 1611 by
Thomas Ravencroft, (ca. 1582–1633) in his songbook“THREE RAVENS, THE” 435