Thou Blind Man's Mark by Sir Philip Sidney Poem Analysis Essay

There will always be an unlimited number of desires in the world. The poem addresses this as well as failed attempts to control the want. In Sir Philip Sidney's poem, Thou Blind Man's Mark, the speaker conveys the complex attitude toward desire through the use of alliteration, personification, and repetition. The speaker describes desire as endless yet evil because there is no stopping new desires from arising, but the cruelty inflicted by the feeling must cease.

With alliteration, the speaker emphasizes the depth at which having these thoughts affect an individual. The "web of will" is forever growing as the speaker cannot possibly achieve all of his goals. The "mangled mind" is the consequence of seeking to gratify desires of "worthless ware". The speaker begins to believe that they are distractions to the brain when it's thoughts could be exerted on productive processes. Additionally, never being able to satisfy one's wants can lead to detrimental effects on the mind if people focus on it too closely. The speaker caused his own pain with his "self-chosen snare". Therefore, he thinks that it's necessary to kill the desire within him. However, he had previously stated that it was unavoidable, conflicting his point.

In order to turn people against desire, the speaker personifies it as an object to "kill". This faciliates criticizing desire as something that can be put to an end despite his earlier claim about the uncontrollable aspects of containing a desire. His complex attitude conveys that he possibly is not in a clear state of mind due to the disappointment of not satisfying his wants. The speaker has "too dearly bought" into the idea that he could possess what is only in his imagination. A mistake on his part is revealed and suggests a reason behind his intense hatred of desire. Like a "blind man", he gave in and learned the cruel nature of it.

Lastly, repetition is utilized to highlight exactly how possessing desires has negatively impacted him to illustrate the evilness of the idea. He claims "in vain thou madest me to vain things aspire" and "in vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire". He was angered when he came to the realization that the emotion would linger and never disappear completely. Also, it only added wood to the fire of conflict within him. The repetition of "in vain" serves to convey the speaker's belief that desire is purposefully cruel. These ideas contribute to the critical view of the speaker and complicate his attitude. Initially, he was naive and allowed himself to have desires. However, he learned "this better lesson" and now his sole desire is to put desire to an end. He's complex as he still has desires that are to kill what he currently possesses.