how like you... this?

i swear, this is the sexiest poem in the English language. And i'm not just talking about that 2nd stanza - the sensuality lies in the rhythm of the lines, in the breathy starts and stops of the meter.

Swoon......


They Flee From Me

They flee from me that sometime did me seek
...With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle tame and meek
...That now are wild and do not remember
...That sometime they put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range
Busily seeking with a continual change.

Thanked be fortune, it hath been otherwise
...Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
...When her loose gown from her shoulders did 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, I lay broad waking.
...But all is turned through my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
...And I have leave to go of her goodness
...And she also to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served,
I would fain know what she hath deserved.


(Thomas Wyatt)
...
...