Thou Blind Man's Mark Snare

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In Sir Philip Sidney's poem, "Thou Blind Man's Mark," the speaker's attitude towards desire is blatantly illustrated. Through diction and tone, Sidney very clearly illustrates the hatred and contempt the speaker feels towards desire. The first line opens the poem with a tone of ridicule; the speaker describes desire as a "blind man's target" and a "fool's... snare." This illustrates how the speaker believes that those who desire are either unaware and "blind" to the corruptness of what they crave or are uninformed regarding the nature of desire and the hold, or "snare," that it can have on a person. In the first stanza the speaker is trying to almost "debunk" validity of desire by stating that only "dregs," the most

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