Theme Of Thou Blind Man's Mark

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Recommended: Sir philip sidney an apology for poetry

Monks would renounce the world to spend their time in contemplation of and service to God, putting their own desires aside, knowing that they could lead them down a path unwanted. Sir Philip Sidney, famous for his direct and forceful simplicity, is able to put so much emotional depth and truth in all of his poetry (Spencer). In “Thou Blind Man’s Mark,” he gives a twist to the understandings of desire. Sidney does this by showing the dark side of desire and the effect on people’s lives. The speaker’s disgust and bitterness of desire led him to the feeling of isolation and sacrificing his own sanity made him eager to throw away desire itself through Sidney’s specific diction, the bitter tone towards desire and poetic device such as irony and personification.
Sidney choice of diction emphasizes the revulsion the speaker feels for the truth of desire. Right off, Sidney uses the words “blind man” (1). It is not that the speaker is blind, but that men are not able to truly see the truth of desire, they are blinded by it. Using the word “mark,” it evokes how the speaker sees that desire is more like a hideous stain in peoples live, it has a negative connotation (1 Sidney). This stain has engulf him, stinking into his mind. In the first quatrain, Sidney describes the speaker the he was overwhelmed by his own desires, throwing himself into a trap of quarantine. This is shown in Sidney’s choice of using the words “snare” and “web” (1-4). The speaker foolishly trapped himself through the entanglement with desires with no end and will never be achieved. Much like a “labyrinth of desire,” trapped and searching for a way out (Brennan). Calling desire themselves “band of all evils” and that they are worthless “scum.” Just useless thoughts that h...

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...ed mind” (6 Sidney). They all add to the bitterness to desire that the speaker feels. In the end the sense of irony is left. The speaker had spoken for his loathing of desire, and then he decided to look “within [himself] to seek]” his virtues (13 Sidney). With this new understanding, the speaker only desire is to “kill desire.” This paradox became the solution of the speaker’s problem of his unwanted desires and with that, ending his pain of his imprisoned and tortured mind (14 Sidney).
The speaker now only wants to leave his desire, since he had sacrificed his sanity, a price that was far too high for desires. With Sidney’s end of irony as the solution to the madness that desire had brought upon the speaker, it establish that the want of material things should be tossed out and internal rewards should be kept. One should only desire to “kill desire” (14 Sidney).

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