Please provide an analysis of Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem "They flee from me that sometime did me seek."

This is one of the most famous of all of Wyatt’s poems.
The speaker of the poem is a man who is now forsaken by the women who, at one time, used
to seek him out, presumably for erotic encounters. In this poem, a male gets to
experience how it feels to be judged as women are often judged – in terms of youth,
appearance, and erotic allure. At one time the man was a desirable object of attention,
but now that he has aged, women have moved on to greener
pastures.

The first four words of the poem – “They flee
from me” – express the speaker’s shock and surprise at this development. He cannot
believe that he is no longer physically attractive, especially since, in the past, women
used to seek him out, entering his bedchamber with naked feet. He compares these women
to animals who were once “gentle, tame, and meek” (3) but who now are “wild” (4). At one
time he felt that he could easily control these women, who readily submitted themselves
to him. Now, however, “they range, / Busily seeking with a continual change” (6-7). 
This theme of “continual change” – otherwise known as “mutability” – is one of the most
prominent themes of much medieval and Renaissance literature. Christians of the Middle
Ages and Renaissance were taught that the only true source of stability in life was God.
To put one’s trust in anyone or anything else was considered a major error that would
inevitably lead to disappointment and disillusionment. The speaker of this poem is now
learning that he cannot depend on his own flesh to remain attractive, and that he cannot
depend on women to continue to find him erotically appealing. He is learning a standard
lesson taught in many medieval and Renaissance texts: that change is a constant feature
of earthly life, and that change is often
unpleasant.

Meanwhile, in the second stanza the speaker
recalls his glory days, when he was an attractive young man. He particularly remembers
being visited by one woman who was herself sexually attractive and who took the
initiative in one romantic encounter with the speaker. During a time when men were
expected to initiate erotic encounters, the male speaker had a chance to experience how
it feels to be the passive partner, the one courted rather than the one doing the
courting. In various ways, the male speaker of this poem is placed into positions that
were conventionally feminine: he was courted, he was sexually seduced, he was abandoned,
and now he is frustrated and even angry.

In the famous line
“It was no dream, I lay broad waking” (15), Wyatt omits a syllable from the standard
ten-syllable line, thus creating a dramatic pause between “dream” and “I.” The pause
emphasizes both halves of the line, suggesting that this highly appealing memory is
still fresh in the speaker’s mind. No sooner does the speaker remember the pleasant
encounter, however, than he tells us that now everything has changed (16). His tone is
initially self-pitying (16), but he soon becomes sarcastic (18) and then bitter and even
vengeful (20-21). One way to read this poem is to see it as a warning against merely
physical desire or lust, and, therefore, as an implicit recommendation of the kind of
spiritual love of God (and from God) that never changes.