Essay:
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark” chronicles Sir Philip Sidney’s tangle with the pitfalls of desire, and portrays how he comes out stronger on the other side of it. Sidney’s emphatic punctuation, potent diction, and whirling sensory details allude to the speaker’s disdain for desire, but simultaneous appreciation of the lesson it taught him.
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark” chronicles Sir Philip Sidney’s tangle with the pitfalls of desire, and portrays how he comes out stronger on the other side of it. Sidney’s emphatic punctuation, potent diction, and whirling sensory details allude to the speaker’s disdain for desire, but simultaneous appreciation of the lesson it taught him.
“For virtue hath this better lesson taught—” this twelfth
line is the spine of the poem, particularly with its standout punctuation. The
line ends with a dash, an informal, lengthy pause mark. This is the only line
in Sidney’s piece ending thus, therefore its message is instantly emphasized
for the reader. It sharply articulates the paradox in the speaker’s reflections
on love: it may have “mangled his mind”, but it also taught him that he should
prepare his mind “to higher things.” The speaker is still licking raw wounds,
but he’s humbled by the wisdom he’s gained.
The word “virtue” itself strikes a harrowing juxtaposition
with Sidney’s repetition of “vain.” The diction immediately comes into contrast
due to each word’s alliteration and connotations, and also expresses the
duality of the speaker’s experience with love. Desire made the speaker “to vain
things aspire,” but eventually the wholesomeness of virtue triumphed in his
mind and he learned a lesson. While “virtue” is a pure, quality character
trait, vanity is a sin, so the jarring contrast between these two similar
diction choices accentuates the complexity of the speaker’s relationship with
desire.
The “smoky fire” of line eleven is a multifaceted detail in
and of itself. Smokiness evokes the “smoke in mirrors” idiom, the feeling of
being deceived as the speaker was by love. Smokiness also connotes sultriness,
or burning passion, a positive characteristic of desire. By employing a symbol
of both manipulation and romance, Sidney defines the paradox of the speaker’s
perspective of desire.
The “smoky fire” is also one of many sensory details that
engages the reader with the speaker’s conflict. The readers feel the fumes in
their throats as they digest that line in the piece. They can also hear harsh
sounds on their tongues as they read the piece aloud, particularly with the
alliteration of the third line. The phrase, “cradle of causeless care” causes
the reader to repeat the harsh “c” sound. This adds to the characterization of
the speaker’s bitterness towards desire, like it left a sour taste in his mouth.
To put it simply, Sidney’s speaker has a love-hate
relationship with desire, as revealed through the diction and organization of
his piece. He’s still battered from the pain of his experience with it, but
recognizes that now he has “this better lesson taught.”
In Reflection:
Although I consider myself decently well-versed in contemporary poetry, I’m a stranger to the rigid Renaissance forms such as that of Sir Philip Sidney’s “Thou Blind Man’s Mark.” I recognized the fourteen-line iambic pentameter format, but I failed to identify the piece as a sonnet. I also neglected to place it in its historical context despite knowing that it was written in the Renaissance time period. With that knowledge, I could’ve explained that the “higher things” Sidney’s speaker aspired to was education in how to be the perfect courtier, education in literature and politics and music, etc. In an effort to improve upon these weaknesses, I’ve set a goal to review poetic forms as well as my notes from AP European History before my next poetry essay assignment. I will chart the success of this strategy by noting the fluctuation of my future essay scores.
Another error I made specific to this prompt was misinterpreting the complexity of the speaker’s stance on desire. I did address a complexity, an idea that while the speaker resented desire for the suffering it gave him, he was thankful that it taught him a lesson. During our in-class examination of the piece, however; I learned that the complexity was in the paradox that the speaker’s only desire was to kill desire, a feeling and an action that cancel each other out. I rooted around in the piece for a complexity, but was oblivious to the one at the center of its narrative. With that knowledge, I’ve decided to aspire to improve my recognition of main ideas by changing my passage reading strategy. I will now read the entire piece without annotations first to get an overall emotional/narrative impression of it, and then will dissect it with close-reading marks. With this method, I will be able to understand the story arc as a whole and then focus on details accordingly.
I also erred in more general ways that could’ve applied to other poetry passages and essays. I overlooked several tonal shifts within the piece. The phrase “but yet” should’ve been a glaring indicator of one, as well as the exclamations, “Desire! Desire!” I noticed a break with the sole dash in the poem, but failed to expand upon how it introduced the central paradox of desiring to kill desire. I plan on reading each poem as if it were a drama, as if each line were spoken aloud with emotional charge. That way, I will be able to more clearly detect changes in the speaker’s pacing and diction, and thus shifts in tone. I hope to achieve this goal in the next essay I write, and to track my progress with the score I receive.
To end on a positive note, there were some good qualities to my essay on “Thou Blind Man’s Mark.” I cited specific parts of the text, using evidence as precise as one word. I also applied nuance to the prompt in my thesis; I described the poetic devices as “emphatic” and “whirling” as well as the lesson the speaker learned, rather than just aping the essay directions. My interpretation of details in the poem itself was nuanced, as I described the duality of the “smoky fire” being deceptive as well as sultry. I implemented transitions between paragraphs to heighten the maturity of the essay. As a whole, my writing techniques flourished; my analysis skills did not.
In Reflection:
Although I consider myself decently well-versed in contemporary poetry, I’m a stranger to the rigid Renaissance forms such as that of Sir Philip Sidney’s “Thou Blind Man’s Mark.” I recognized the fourteen-line iambic pentameter format, but I failed to identify the piece as a sonnet. I also neglected to place it in its historical context despite knowing that it was written in the Renaissance time period. With that knowledge, I could’ve explained that the “higher things” Sidney’s speaker aspired to was education in how to be the perfect courtier, education in literature and politics and music, etc. In an effort to improve upon these weaknesses, I’ve set a goal to review poetic forms as well as my notes from AP European History before my next poetry essay assignment. I will chart the success of this strategy by noting the fluctuation of my future essay scores.
Another error I made specific to this prompt was misinterpreting the complexity of the speaker’s stance on desire. I did address a complexity, an idea that while the speaker resented desire for the suffering it gave him, he was thankful that it taught him a lesson. During our in-class examination of the piece, however; I learned that the complexity was in the paradox that the speaker’s only desire was to kill desire, a feeling and an action that cancel each other out. I rooted around in the piece for a complexity, but was oblivious to the one at the center of its narrative. With that knowledge, I’ve decided to aspire to improve my recognition of main ideas by changing my passage reading strategy. I will now read the entire piece without annotations first to get an overall emotional/narrative impression of it, and then will dissect it with close-reading marks. With this method, I will be able to understand the story arc as a whole and then focus on details accordingly.
I also erred in more general ways that could’ve applied to other poetry passages and essays. I overlooked several tonal shifts within the piece. The phrase “but yet” should’ve been a glaring indicator of one, as well as the exclamations, “Desire! Desire!” I noticed a break with the sole dash in the poem, but failed to expand upon how it introduced the central paradox of desiring to kill desire. I plan on reading each poem as if it were a drama, as if each line were spoken aloud with emotional charge. That way, I will be able to more clearly detect changes in the speaker’s pacing and diction, and thus shifts in tone. I hope to achieve this goal in the next essay I write, and to track my progress with the score I receive.
To end on a positive note, there were some good qualities to my essay on “Thou Blind Man’s Mark.” I cited specific parts of the text, using evidence as precise as one word. I also applied nuance to the prompt in my thesis; I described the poetic devices as “emphatic” and “whirling” as well as the lesson the speaker learned, rather than just aping the essay directions. My interpretation of details in the poem itself was nuanced, as I described the duality of the “smoky fire” being deceptive as well as sultry. I implemented transitions between paragraphs to heighten the maturity of the essay. As a whole, my writing techniques flourished; my analysis skills did not.
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