Thou Blind Man’s Mark

In his poem entitled “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”, the 16th century poet Sir Philip Sidney illustrates
his complex attitude towards desire. By exercising an array of poetic devices, including apostrophe,
alliterating and emphasized diction, and anaphora, Sidney provides an insightful account of the speaker’s
detrimental experience with desire and personifies desire as possessing adverse qualities.
The speaker begins in direct address to desire, which he personifies throughout the poem. The
literary device most apparent is apostrophe; by structuring the poem as in addressing desire, Sidney is
able to characterize desire and essentially bring it to life. The speaker’s admonition of desire is evident
right from the start: he provides a delineation of insults, calling desire the “blind man’s mark” and the
“self-chosen snare” of a fool. Sidney employs alliterating diction in the third line in order to instill a
rhythmic flow, which stimulates a sense of accumulating accusations at desire. In a gravely accusatory
tone, he characterizes desire as the “band of all evils” and “cradle of causeless care.” The speaker
proceeds to incorporate a metaphor likening desire to a web of will. Through this image, the complex
attitude of the speaker is further developed, as the readers grow apparent of another detriment induced by
desire: its tendency to addict. Through the metaphor, the speaker conveys his characterization of desire as
a controlling, destructive force that’s highly addictive, as its “web of will” essentially has no end.
The transition from the poem’s first quatrain to its second quatrain presents a shift in the address
towards desire. While the first quatrain delineates the adverse qualities of desire, the second quatrain
provides an account of the speaker’s detrimental experience with it. With a tone of regret and indignation,
the speaker concedes that he has “bought the worthless ware” of desire, which, in turn, engendered the
deterioration of his mental state to the point of a “mangled mind”. This presents a central aspect of the
speaker’s complex attitude towards desire: although he now recognizes it as a trap, he himself has fallen
for it for “too long, too long” (7). In perspective, the speaker delivers his message from a point of
experience, a fact which establishes his credibility and grants him insight into the dangers of desire.
In the third quatrain, Sidney employs anaphora in further developing the speaker’s bitterness
towards desire. Lines 9-11 all include the phrase “in vain”, followed by a d escription of a malicious
attempt made by desire to harm the speaker. The use of anaphora instills a resonant emphasis of the
damage that desire holds the capacity to induce. As the speaker bought in to desire, he aspired to obtain
and achieve “vain things”. In context, this may be interpreted to mean materialistic pursuits and
superficial goals in life. Through the enumeration of desire’s adverse effects, the speaker both recounts
his personal experience with it and provides a critical warning for the readers, advising them to refrain
from falling trap to desire’s alluring, addictive, and forceful appeal.
The speaker ends the poem on a note of optimistic resolution. He accounts that, having been hurt
by desire’s detrimental force, he now seeks satisfaction from “within myself”. He now fully recognizes
the dangers of materialistic desires and pursues the intangibles in life. Ultimately, through the
employment of apostrophe, anaphora, and emphasized diction, Sidney delivers this highly pertinent
admonition of the blind pursuit of materialism.