Sir Thomas Wyatt – “They Flee from Me” – Exam Based MCQs
1. “They Flee from Me” is written by: (UGC NET)
A) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
B) Edmund Spenser
C) Sir Thomas Wyatt
D) Philip Sidney
Ans: C) Sir Thomas Wyatt
2. Sir Thomas Wyatt belongs to the: (SET)
A) Elizabethan age
B) Tudor / Early Renaissance period
C) Restoration age
D) Victorian age
Ans: B) Tudor / Early Renaissance period
3. The poem “They Flee from Me” mainly expresses: (PGTRB)
A) Religious devotion
B) Political victory
C) A lover’s complaint about change and betrayal
D) Pastoral joy
Ans: C) A lover’s complaint about change and betrayal
4. The opening image “They flee from me” refers to: (UGC NET)
A) Soldiers in battle
B) Birds migrating south
C) People/creatures once familiar now turning away
D) Waves on the shore
Ans: C) People/creatures once familiar now turning away
5. The poem is best classified as a: (SET)
A) Sonnet
B) Ballad
C) Lyric complaint
D) Epic
Ans: C) Lyric complaint
6. The tone of the poem is mainly: (PGTRB)
A) Comic and playful
B) Bitter, reflective, and regretful
C) Heroic and triumphant
D) Didactic and moralizing
Ans: B) Bitter, reflective, and regretful
7. The creatures that “stalk” the speaker in the first stanza suggest: (UGC NET)
A) Fear and threat only
B) Earlier intimacy and tameness
C) Religious pilgrimage
D) Political ambition
Ans: B) Earlier intimacy and tameness
8. “With naked foot, stalking in my chamber” describes: (SET)
A) A maidservant at work
B) A secret intimate visit
C) A thief in the house
D) A messenger from court
Ans: B) A secret intimate visit
9. The phrase “special grace” in the poem suggests: (PGTRB)
A) Divine salvation only
B) A special favor or intimate kindness
C) Court punishment
D) Public honor
Ans: B) A special favor or intimate kindness
10. The speaker’s mood in remembering the past is one of: (UGC NET)
A) Indifference
B) Excitement about the future
C) Philosophical detachment
D) Nostalgia mixed with hurt
Ans: D) Nostalgia mixed with hurt
11. The woman in the second stanza “caught me in her arms long and small” indicates: (SET)
A) Formal greeting
B) Passionate intimacy
C) Maternal affection
D) Religious ritual
Ans: B) Passionate intimacy
12. The poem is notable for its sense of: (PGTRB)
A) Stable love
B) Chivalric certainty
C) Changeability and inconstancy
D) Religious redemption
Ans: C) Changeability and inconstancy
13. The final line “But since that I so kindly am served” is: (UGC NET)
A) Straightforward praise
B) Pure gratitude
C) Ironical and bitter
D) A prayer
Ans: C) Ironical and bitter
14. One important theme of the poem is: (SET)
A) Constancy in marriage
B) Courtly betrayal and mutability
C) Nature worship alone
D) Epic heroism
Ans: B) Courtly betrayal and mutability
15. The poem’s speaker is most likely: (PGTRB)
A) A king addressing soldiers
B) A lover reflecting on a former mistress
C) A priest preaching to sinners
D) A shepherd singing outdoors
Ans: B) A lover reflecting on a former mistress
16. Wyatt is important in English literature mainly because he: (UGC NET)
A) Wrote only religious drama
B) Helped introduce Renaissance lyric and Petrarchan influence into English poetry
C) Founded the novel
D) Wrote the first epic in English
Ans: B) Introduced Renaissance lyric and Petrarchism
17. The phrase “they put themselves in danger” suggests that in the past these figures: (SET)
A) Attacked the speaker
B) Trusted and approached the speaker freely
C) Joined a war
D) Entered a monastery
Ans: B) Trusted and approached the speaker freely
18. The poem’s “they” in the first line may be understood as: (PGTRB)
A) Kings only
B) Birds only
C) Women/lovers metaphorically figured as tame creatures
D) Servants of the church
Ans: C) Women/lovers metaphorically figured as creatures
19. The diction of the poem combines: (UGC NET)
A) Only rustic slang
B) Courtly refinement with sharp emotional realism
C) Scientific terminology
D) Biblical prophecy only
Ans: B) Courtly refinement with emotional realism
20. The remembered scene in stanza two mainly functions as: (SET)
A) Comic interruption
B) Political statement
C) Proof of past intimacy
D) Religious confession
Ans: C) Proof of past intimacy
21. “Take bread at my hand” is an image of: (PGTRB)
A) War rationing
B) Taming and dependence
C) Religious communion only
D) Poverty alone
Ans: B) Taming and dependence
22. The poem questions: (UGC NET)
A) The certainty of human affection
B) The value of science
C) Military courage
D) Religious doctrine
Ans: A) The certainty of human affection
23. The speaker’s attitude toward the woman is: (SET)
A) Entirely forgiving
B) Admiring but resentful
C) Completely indifferent
D) Fatherly
Ans: B) Admiring but resentful
24. The poem’s movement is mainly from: (PGTRB)
A) Present joy to future hope
B) Religious faith to doubt
C) Present estrangement to remembered intimacy to bitter reflection
D) Nature description to war
Ans: C) Estrangement → intimacy → bitter reflection
25. Wyatt’s poetry often shows tension between: (UGC NET)
A) Machine and nature
B) Desire and courtly restraint
C) Science and faith
D) Village and city only
Ans: B) Desire and courtly restraint
26. The title “By Remembrance” emphasizes: (SET)
A) Political memory of England
B) The role of recollection in reviving the past relationship
C) Historical chronicle writing
D) Religious ritual
Ans: B) Recollection reviving the past
27. The poem is most likely addressed to: (PGTRB)
A) Parliament
B) A former beloved, directly or indirectly
C) The clergy
D) A hunting party
Ans: B) A former beloved
28. The emotional effect of the poem depends heavily on: (UGC NET)
A) Mythological machinery
B) Sudden contrast between past tenderness and present rejection
C) Lengthy moral sermons
D) Comic exaggeration only
Ans: B) Contrast of past tenderness and present rejection
29. The style of “They Flee from Me” is notable for being: (SET)
A) Simple yet subtle and emotionally charged
B) Purely ornate and decorative
C) Entirely comic
D) Scientific and technical
Ans: A) Simple yet subtle and charged
30. The poem reflects a court environment where relationships may be: (PGTRB)
A) Completely stable
B) Spiritually pure only
C) Politically and emotionally uncertain
D) Rural and innocent
Ans: C) Politically and emotionally uncertain
31. The speaker’s question “Thanked be fortune, it hath been otherwise” conveys: (UGC NET)
A) Gratitude to destiny without irony
B) Reflection that circumstances were once different
C) Religious conversion
D) Political surrender
Ans: B) Circumstances were once different
32. The poem can be read as an exploration of: (SET)
A) Betrayed trust
B) Naval warfare
C) Pastoral innocence
D) Religious martyrdom
Ans: A) Betrayed trust
33. Wyatt’s poetry was strongly influenced by: (PGTRB)
A) Homer only
B) Dante only
C) Petrarch and Italian Renaissance lyric
D) Anglo-Saxon heroic verse alone
Ans: C) Petrarch and Italian lyric
34. In the poem, memory serves as: (UGC NET)
A) Comfort only
B) Both pleasure and pain
C) Political propaganda
D) Religious doctrine
Ans: B) Both pleasure and pain
35. The phrase “dear heart” suggests the woman once: (SET)
A) Hated the speaker
B) Shared closeness and affection with the speaker
C) Served as his maid only
D) Was a religious guide
Ans: B) Shared closeness and affection
36. The poem’s final rhetorical question mainly expresses: (PGTRB)
A) Contentment
B) Pity for others
C) Sarcasm and wounded disbelief
D) Religious certainty
Ans: C) Sarcasm and wounded disbelief
37. The poem suggests that courtly love may be: (UGC NET)
A) Entirely sincere and lasting
B) Vulnerable to change, performance, and betrayal
C) Only religious
D) Simple and rural
Ans: B) Vulnerable to change and betrayal
38. One striking quality of Wyatt’s voice in this poem is its: (SET)
A) Personal directness
B) Epic impersonality
C) Dramatic chorus
D) Pure allegory only
Ans: A) Personal directness
39. The poem belongs to the broader tradition of: (PGTRB)
A) Court lyric
B) Gothic novel
C) Scientific prose
D) Metaphysical sermon
Ans: A) Court lyric
40. Which best describes the woman’s remembered action? (UGC NET)
A) Cold rejection
B) Tender initiative and seduction
C) Public humiliation
D) Religious prayer
Ans: B) Tender initiative and seduction
41. The first stanza establishes a contrast between: (SET)
A) Religion and science
B) Present withdrawal and past familiarity
C) War and peace
D) Country and city
Ans: B) Present withdrawal and past familiarity
42. The poem’s emotional center lies in: (PGTRB)
A) Political advice
B) Social satire only
C) The shock of altered affection
D) Nature description
Ans: C) The shock of altered affection
43. “They Flee from Me” is often admired for its: (UGC NET)
A) Honest emotional complexity
B) Detailed theology
C) Narrative comedy alone
D) Mythic machinery
Ans: A) Honest emotional complexity
44. Wyatt served in the court of: (SET)
A) Henry VIII
B) Elizabeth I
C) James I
D) Charles II
Ans: A) Henry VIII
45. The poem’s language is effective because it is: (PGTRB)
A) Completely obscure
B) Plain yet suggestive and layered
C) Purely ornamental
D) Entirely dramatic dialogue
Ans: B) Plain yet suggestive and layered
46. The poem reflects Renaissance interest in: (UGC NET)
A) Individual emotion and personal experience
B) Feudal warfare only
C) Mythical monsters
D) Scientific laboratories
Ans: A) Individual emotion and experience
47. The remembered woman in the poem is presented as: (SET)
A) Entirely passive
B) Active, bold, and intimate in the remembered scene
C) A queen in public court
D) A servant at supper
Ans: B) Active, bold, and intimate
48. The poem’s irony sharpens the sense of: (PGTRB)
A) Triumph
B) Revenge completed
C) Emotional injury and disillusionment
D) Political reform
Ans: C) Emotional injury and disillusionment
49. Which statement best fits the poem? (UGC NET)
A) It celebrates lasting union
B) It laments the loss of past intimacy and the instability of favor
C) It is a religious hymn
D) It is a comic pastoral
Ans: B) It laments lost intimacy and instability
50. The best critical description of “They Flee from Me” is: (SET)
A) A deeply personal Tudor lyric of memory, loss, and irony
B) A medieval dream vision
C) A dramatic monologue by a king
D) A pastoral elegy on nature only
Ans: A) A deeply personal Tudor lyric of memory, loss, and irony
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