I am not a fan of Bruno Mars. I'm not a fan because virtually all of his music follows a single theme and pattern. Bruno Mars meets a girl, she dumps him (usually because he was a jerk) and then he cries about it for the rest of the song. He writes songs about jumping in front of trains, blowing himself up with grenades, and medicating himself into oblivion because he can't face the sadness that comes with a girl leaving him.
If Bruno Mars had existed during the Rennaisance, They Flee from Me is the type of poem/song he would have written.
They Flee from me is the story of a man lamenting the fact that his once submissive and demure lady-friend (or friends) decided she wasn't interested in him any more and left him. There are bits of the poem that suggest some sexual action "did me seek with naked foot, stalking in my chamber" and "When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall, and she me caught in her arms long and small". There are clearly some ladies wandering around in the speaker's room without shoes and with their clothes falling off.
But then there's also the lines that imply that these ladies aren't exactly keen on the speaker, like "I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek, that now are wild and do not remember", or "ow they range, busily seeking with a continual change." So, now the speaker is saying that this lady who used to be "gentle and meek" is now wandering away from him, looking for new, more exciting adventures.
The part of the poem that most reminds me of Mars is the last line "I would fain know what she hath deserved." Here the speaker is saying that he doesn't know if he was good enough for the lady. Did she deserve better than him? Is that why she left him? This entire poem is about a guy looking back on a sexual experience and wishing his partner hadn't left him and wondering what he did wrong and what he could have done better. It sounds exactly like any one of Bruno Mars's songs.
**A little historical conext: Wyatt was part of King Henry's court (The same King Henry who kept killing and banishing his wives and then getting remarried) and during that time it was extremely common to men and women in the aristocracy to fool around with one another and even keep one or several mistresses.
Your connection to Bruno Mars is really interesting! I never would've thought that Bruno Mars could be Sir Thomas Wyatt. I can see the similarities with his songs and this poem, though. While reading this poem, the biggest thing I thought about was why she left him. Maybe he wasn't good enough or maybe she was bored. I guess one night stands were taken more seriously during this time period!
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