Posted by Alumni from Substack
January 31, 2026
I once audited a class on modern poetry by Elder Olson, who had the magical power to make poems by Thomas make sense. I don't, so will limit myself to one that does. It is a villanelle, I think the only well known modern villanelle. The villanelle is an interesting form; once you finish the first verse the poem is half written.1 The one you link as "They Flee from Me" is by Thomas Wyatt, as I think you must know, as it's one the page you link to. He was a younger man in the court of Henry VIII, and there are rumors that he was in love with Ann Boleyn. On the other hand, I've seen the poem that most seems to evidence this, "Whoso list to hunt," attributed to an Italian poet whom Wyatt translated (but on the other other hand, he might have translated a poem because it fit his situation and expressed his feelings). I like "Whoso list to hunt" and "Madam, withouten many words" nearly as much as "They flee from me," and recommend them to you. From Yeats, I find "Sailing to Byzantium"... learn more