They Flee From Me

Essay Questions

1. *How does Wyatt use tone and voice to create a sense of controlled bitterness in They Flee from Me? Explore how the poem's surface restraint and its underlying emotional charge work together to make the final rhetorical question more devastating than open anger might have been. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity)*

1. *To what extent does the animal-taming metaphor in They Flee from Me shape the reader's understanding of the power dynamics between the speaker and the women he describes? Consider how imagery such as the barefoot approach and feeding from the hand establishes and then dismantles those dynamics across the poem's three stanzas. (AQA AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)*

1. *How does Wyatt use the shifting structure of They Flee from Me — moving from detached observation to tender memory to cold judgment — to trace the speaker's emotional journey? Analyse how the transition between stanzas mirrors the speaker's psychological movement from loss to longing to quiet verdict. (AQA AO1/AO2; IB guiding concept: Transformation)*

1. *To what extent does the single pivotal memory at the heart of They Flee from Me function as both a source of tenderness and a weapon of accusation? Discuss how Wyatt uses the vividness and intimacy of this memory — particularly the symbolism of the loose gown and the speaker's insistence that he was fully awake — to intensify the sense of betrayal. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)*

1. *How does the Tudor court context in which Wyatt wrote They Flee from Me deepen a reader's understanding of the poem's treatment of love, loyalty, and betrayal? Consider how writing in an environment where romantic entanglements could carry life-or-death consequences inflects the poem's tone of restrained grievance. (AQA AO3; IB guiding concept: Context)*

1. *"They Flee from Me ultimately condemns the woman rather than mourning the relationship." To what extent do you agree? Evaluate how Wyatt's use of the term "new-fangleness" and the closing rhetorical question position the woman's choice as capricious, while also considering whether the poem allows space for a more complex or sympathetic reading of her departure. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)*

1. *Comparing They Flee from Me with one other poem in which a speaker reflects on lost or unrequited love, explore how poets use memory and the past to negotiate feelings of betrayal and sorrow. Consider how the act of remembering functions differently or similarly in each poem as a means of processing emotional pain. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3 comparative; IB guiding concept: Intertextuality)*

1. *How does Wyatt's adaptation of Petrarchan conventions in They Flee from Me both honour and subvert the tradition of the tormented male lover and the heartless lady? Discuss the ways in which the poem draws on Italian lyrical traditions while grounding them in something more visceral, personal, and emotionally ambiguous. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3; IB guiding concept: Intertextuality)*