"They Flee From Me"

I am a very big fan of poetry, and will always jump on an opportunity to share anything that I find resonating or intriguing. There are a few poems written by Thomas Wyatt that I enjoy. At least two of them were written about my one of my favorite former Queens of England, Anne Boleyn. I have decided to share my most favorite of Wyatt's poems with you, which I found on a very wonderful Tudor site, http://www.luminarium.org/.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It has a very poignant and sort of ethereal quality to it.


They flee from me,
that sometime did me seek,
With naked foot stalking within my chamber:
Once have I seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild,
and do not once remember,
That sometime they have put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand;
and now they range,
Busily seeking in continual change.
Thanked be Fortune,
it hath been otherwise twenty times better;
but once especial,
In thin array,
after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown did from her shoulders fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small,
And therewithal sweetly did me kiss,
And softly said, 'Dear heart, how like you this?'
It was no dream;
for I lay broad awaking:
But all is turn'd now through my gentleness,
Into a bitter fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness;
And she also to use new fangleness.
But since that I unkindly so am served:
How like you this, what hath she now deserved?

***Image found here: http://tudorhistory.org/