This was once a Love Poem/They flee From Me

They flee from me talks about how girls put themselves in vulnerable positions around him, and they "took bread at my hand" meaning the author supplied the girls with food. Which made them all content. But then he says "that are now wild and do not remember". It seems that the girls were never under this guys control, so they listened to their instincts and went for a more worthy guy and forget about the happiness they experienced with him. Near the end of the poem the poet talks about how the girl kissed him and the guy just let the girl do her thing I guess because he says, "all is turned through my gentleness." and so they pretty much take advantage of his loving nature, which causes the author pain and his gentleness is transformed into, "a strange kind of foresaking." This was once a love poem sounds like the girl poet had her love taken advantage of. She put herself in a vulnerable position emotionally with a guy who, "spoke with passion of history, of art. It was lovely then." She seems to be resentful, but still compassionate because she still has love in her heart. She just realized she made a mistake, and she doesn't really regret it, because, "the longing has not diminished." She admires this man still, but as she said at the beggining, she is, "perplexed and a little embarrassed." Also, she refers to this guy as an "it". Which is very interesting to me. It seems as if she sees this guy as an object that holds love, Rather than a human. By calling him an it, she places him in a completely different situation as her. She realizes that it was not meant to be, but that doesn't make it any less hard for her. These poems can be compared because they both display love in its purest form. And that is admiration rather than possession. Both poets seem to muse about other peoples feelings, and even their own. Also, they both display watching somone they feel a love for grow. Nobody is different really, but yet their situations are different. Also, both poets have a really good memory of past events that had a deep meaning to them. In both poems they use the word "remember" which is really interesting, suggesting that the moments spent together had a monumental impact on them as a person.