Hello and welcome to Frank Skinner's poetry podcast. This week I want to talk about a poet and I know that happens most weeks, but this guy, I've got sort of unusual reasons for being interested in the first place.

First of all, when he was 13, he entered, wait for it, Henry VIII's court. So this was 1516, yeah. There's actually a record of a few years later of him taking part in a tournament.

I'm talking about jousting and stuff like that. I think this might be my first jousting poet that I've done on the podcast.

Henry VIII was present, actually did a bit of tourney mounting himself. And then you think, well, that you can't get much more strings than that.

Then this poet had a fling with Ann Berlin. And that went a bit wrong. Ten years later, when Ann Berlin was very much out of favor, all that came up again.

For that reason and a few other things, the poet was imprisoned in the tale of London. And actually get this. From his window, he watches his ex Ann Berlin being executed.

Now we've all fantasized about watching an ex being executed from our window, but for it to actually happen.

Actually, executed would be a great email title. If you were sending a report of watching an ex executed, you could go ex-hiphon-ecuted.

Anyway, he makes a comeback and he gets some cracking jobs. And in the end he has to go off on an errand for the king.

And he gets a fever from riding so hard and he dies age 39. And he's called Satomas White. And that's all I want to talk about today.

But what a backstory. I mean, it's really, as poets go, the jousting poet should be the title of this, I think. Anyway, so I'm going to look at some of his poems.

I'm just going to say, you're probably going to think, oh, I thought you weren't interested in the biography of poets that it gets in the way of reading the poem in a sort of emotional from the got-why rather than thinking, oh, this is probably a reference to that incident.

And I'm not going to do that. I just want to, sometimes I watch test cricket on the television or even white ball cricket. And it's live from, let's say, Australia.

And I'm watching it probably on my own at night. And suddenly, I don't know why it strikes me. Oh, wow, this is actually happening in Australia.

And I'm watching it as it happens in colour. And it completely blows me away. And I know it's something that most people take for granted, understandably.

And that's what I feel about the fact that I can read the poetry, the deeper thinkings and writings of a man from the 16th century.

I just occasionally that hits me in a wondrous or inspiring way. Okay, this is my favourite Sir Thomas Wyatt poem.

And I'm just going to go straight into it. The title is nearly always the first line with Sir Thomas Wyatt. So listen out for that.

They flee from me that some time did me seek. With naked foot stalking in my chamber, I have seen them gentle, tame and meek that know a wild and do not remember that some time they put themselves in danger to take bread at my hand.

And now they range, busily seeking with a continual change. And that last word there, change. That's what this whole stanza is about.

The first line, they flee from me that some time did me seek. So people that used to seek me, the people that used to want to know me that wanted to get close to me, now are avoiding me.

And this can happen in love, of course, as I'm sure you all know. But I think there's a greater relevancy in which I'll come to in a mini.

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