Love Addiction by Sir Thomas Wyatt: Depressed Temptation for Past Lovers
Sir Thomas Wyatt: Love Addiction
Whether you live in the twenty-first century or lived the early sixteenth century, the idea of love is the same. Falling in love is easy, while recovering from a broken heart is much more difficult. According to The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Sir Thomas Wyatt was a well-educated courtier and diplomat, spending much of his adult life abroad, until imprisoned for treason. After analyzing Wyatt’s poetic work, knowing his past experiences greatly helps find meaning in his sonnet poems. ‘They Flee From Me” is a masterpiece written by Wyatt that demonstrates his addiction to love with depressed temptation for past lovers.
Within the first four lines there is a clear demonstration of a relationship once built in the past that is now gone. The stanza describes a relationship with that not of a human, but rather much more likely an animal with a “naked foot” that “are wild and do not remember”. I believe Wyatt, in a depressed state, is describes his relationship with a wild animal that once would visit him in his chamber, to a past lover that would do the same. Although knowing Wyatt’s real life past dealt with many interactions with different women, lines six through nine seems to be exemplifying the past lover who stole his heart. Infatuation or true love is the question? Wyatt claims that this lover was “twenty time better” than all previous lovers. The act of comparing lovers implies that this might not involve love at all, but rather only an obsession for sex. Jorge Valencia brings up an excellent idea when he claims, “…(Wyatt) might get physical pleasure form this affair but deep in his heart feels remorse about having affairs with prostitutes since he is not experiencing true love”. Wyatt idea of love and happiness could in reality not be that at all, but rather in a depressed and lonely state, only desire what he once had so often.
Depression, loneliness, and
Whether you live in the twenty-first century or lived the early sixteenth century, the idea of love is the same. Falling in love is easy, while recovering from a broken heart is much more difficult. According to The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Sir Thomas Wyatt was a well-educated courtier and diplomat, spending much of his adult life abroad, until imprisoned for treason. After analyzing Wyatt’s poetic work, knowing his past experiences greatly helps find meaning in his sonnet poems. ‘They Flee From Me” is a masterpiece written by Wyatt that demonstrates his addiction to love with depressed temptation for past lovers.
Within the first four lines there is a clear demonstration of a relationship once built in the past that is now gone. The stanza describes a relationship with that not of a human, but rather much more likely an animal with a “naked foot” that “are wild and do not remember”. I believe Wyatt, in a depressed state, is describes his relationship with a wild animal that once would visit him in his chamber, to a past lover that would do the same. Although knowing Wyatt’s real life past dealt with many interactions with different women, lines six through nine seems to be exemplifying the past lover who stole his heart. Infatuation or true love is the question? Wyatt claims that this lover was “twenty time better” than all previous lovers. The act of comparing lovers implies that this might not involve love at all, but rather only an obsession for sex. Jorge Valencia brings up an excellent idea when he claims, “…(Wyatt) might get physical pleasure form this affair but deep in his heart feels remorse about having affairs with prostitutes since he is not experiencing true love”. Wyatt idea of love and happiness could in reality not be that at all, but rather in a depressed and lonely state, only desire what he once had so often.
Depression, loneliness, and