They Flee From Me Poem Analysis

Poetry, like the normal speech has the natural patterns that occur between stressed and unstressed syllables. A carefully arranged pattern of these sounds (metre) would help create the rhythm of the poem. Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poem, ‘They Flee from Me’ (371) uses a number of metres in the entire poem to create rhythm and communicate meaning. The first line of the poem: (They flee from me that sometime did me seek) has a combination of iambic pentameter and anapest metre. The first two feet follow the natural conversation where a stressed syllable follows an unstressed syllable. However, in the next two feet, the metre changes to anapest where two unstressed syllables follow a stressed syllable. This arrangement helps emphasize the action being depicted in the poem. The alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in the first half of line one suggests the movement of ‘they’ and ‘me’. The persona draws the attention of the audience through this natural metre. The next half of line one emphasizes the irregularity in the actions of the persona who ‘sometimes’ seeks them. The arrangements of stressed and unstressed syllables in the poem not only helps create rhythm but also draw the attention of the audience to the message

The first two feet (With naked foot) has an iambic pentameter while the second half of the line (stalking in my chamber) has an irregular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables. Similarly, this part suggests the act of stalking which is stealth, unobserved and therefore unpredictable in nature. Line three (I have seen them gentle, tame and meek) has eight syllables in total. This line has a different metre from the first two lines. This line has dactyl metre where one unstressed syllable follows two stressed syllables. This arrangement seems to emphasize the declarative statement the persona says, their observation of the subjects being referred