In his sonnet, “Thou Blind Man’s Mark,” Sir Philip Sidney uses an apostrophe as a way for his speaker to address their complex feelings toward the subject of desire. The speaker explains that desire has the power to both mentally and physically blind people, causing them to strive towards instant, materialistic gratification rather than true self-satisfaction. However, these feelings seem almost ironic as it appears that through discovering the true face of desire, the speaker found a new longing: to kill the evil that is desire. In order to express such complicated feelings to readers, Sidney relies on various poetic and literary devices such as repetition, alliteration, and form to help present to his readers what the speaker believes desire
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In essence, the poem can be categorized into four groups. The first group, line one through four, illustrate, through the use of alliteration, every negative thing the speaker associates desire with, showing his contempt for the feeling. The second group, lines five through eight, explain all the wrongdoings desire has bestowed upon the speaker, showing the reasoning behind such a strong hatred. Through the heavy use of repetition and alliteration, lines nine through twelve, are able to further elaborate on those wrongdoings, eventually revealing that through the struggle to overcome the fleeting feeling, the speaker has actually learned a valuable lesson from desire. The evil feeling the speaker once loathed ironically helped them realize their true desire. Despite the fact that desire sought to ruin them, made them aspire vain things, and kindled their “smoky fire,” the speaker through this was able to finally understand the truth of desire and how it is unattainable and, if attained, only provides brief satisfaction (Hardy 9-11). In the final group, lines thirteen and fourteen, Sidney does not rely on repetition or alliteration, which may reflect the speaker’s new state of mind, clear of all complex feelings and now able to think clearly without a cloud of desire hiding from them want they truly want. These
In essence, the poem can be categorized into four groups. The first group, line one through four, illustrate, through the use of alliteration, every negative thing the speaker associates desire with, showing his contempt for the feeling. The second group, lines five through eight, explain all the wrongdoings desire has bestowed upon the speaker, showing the reasoning behind such a strong hatred. Through the heavy use of repetition and alliteration, lines nine through twelve, are able to further elaborate on those wrongdoings, eventually revealing that through the struggle to overcome the fleeting feeling, the speaker has actually learned a valuable lesson from desire. The evil feeling the speaker once loathed ironically helped them realize their true desire. Despite the fact that desire sought to ruin them, made them aspire vain things, and kindled their “smoky fire,” the speaker through this was able to finally understand the truth of desire and how it is unattainable and, if attained, only provides brief satisfaction (Hardy 9-11). In the final group, lines thirteen and fourteen, Sidney does not rely on repetition or alliteration, which may reflect the speaker’s new state of mind, clear of all complex feelings and now able to think clearly without a cloud of desire hiding from them want they truly want. These