The Forest

The primary setting for the poem is the forest or another wooded area would deer would roam. Because of the central metaphor of the poem – that women are like wild deer – the speaker imagines that he is a tamer, or even a hunter of deer who gains their trust through offering food. This setting is not an uncommon one in Wyatt's poetry. Indeed, his famous poem, "Whoso List to Hunt" is also set in the woods and features a speaker who is actively hunting a "hind," or female deer.

The Bedchamber

In contrast to the natural landscape offered through the forest setting, the poem also features the constructed, intimate setting of the speaker's bedchamber. Nowhere is this setting more prevalent than in the speaker's memory of his sexual encounter with one woman in particular, who undresses herself and asks the speaker how he likes her naked form...