Blog Post # 5: Timed Poetry Writing for Thou Blind Man's Mark and Reflection

Timed Writing:

“Desiring naught but how to kill desire” (14). In Sir Philip Sidney’s Thou Blind Man’s Mark, the speaker reveals how he is both consumed and disgusted by desire through Sidney’s adept usage of alliteration, repetition and symbolism, making one thing blatantly clear: man often unknowingly chooses his own poison.

As the poem begins, Sidney immediately begins to use alliteration to emphasize man’s complex connection with desire through a series of accusatory phrases. Sidney highlights desire as a “ blind man’s mark” (1), and a “self-chosen snare” (1) to insinuate that desire is the target of many so it is a self-chosen trap, but it traps the "blind" "fools". Sidney's usage of these two words indicates that only men who can't see the trap and are thus "blind" "fools" to its horrible effects are the ones who are trapped. Sidney then goes on to describe desire as a “web of will, whose end is never wrought” (4). It is clear that the narrator believes desire to be a never ending trap, like it is a spider’s web but reminds the reader with the word “will” that desire is chosen so it is partially the victim’s fault. However,  the narrator also admits that he, too, bought desire with the price of his “mangled mind” and “worthless ware” (6). The narrator’s self-admittance of his diminished mental capabilities and submission to desire makes his credibility questionable and creates a paradox. The narrator rejects desire and warns of it, but he is completely enraptured by it. His desperate warnings to the audience to avoid desire is itself a desire. Man’s ability to reason and process thought on “higher things” is replaced with unbridled obsession and consumption by desire.

Sidney begins to utilize repetition to emphasize the narrator’s contradictory view on desire. The repetition of “Desire, Desire!” (5) shows the narrator bemoaning his choice at giving in to the emotion that his brought him grief that is “too long, too long” (7). Sidney’s repetition of the words “desire” and “too long” actually drags out the phrases, making them longer than they need to be. This actually creates the impression that desire does last too long as the words “Desire” and “long” seem to drag along.

However, the narrator again admits that the long lasting desire is his own doing. With the repetition of the word “vain” (10-11), Sidney reveals that desire is a form of the narrator's vanity to aspire to alluring “vain things” (10). Again, the reliability of the character is questioned as his paradox with desire is further established.

Despite the hopeless nature presented throughout the piece, a glimmer of hope displays itself towards the end of the poem Although the narrator admits to being led astray by the alluring and manipulative nature of desire, he is able to see that he sold himself to desire and "vain things" (10)  in return for a "mangled mind" (6). The last sentence restates the narrator's desire paradox, "Desiring naught but how to kill desire" (14). The narrator's recognition on the vile, evil nature of his enemy, desire, shows that the narrator now sees the evils of desire. Thus, he is no longer the "blind man" and "fool" (1) that symbolize those unaware of the evils of desire. He now possesses the vision to know that man is unknowingly choosing his own poison by giving in to desire.

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Reflection:

I am not a poet, and I know it. I struggled much more with the poetry timed writing than with the prose writing because I had a more difficult time understanding poetry. My self score is a 6. Although I had many flaws, I had a "reasonable analysis of Sydney's usage of poetic devices". I was able to grasp some of the complexity-- i.e. paradox of desire and the symbols-- and I was able to skim the surface of Sidney's use of vanity, the narrator's hatred towards desire (but honestly, who wouldn't be able to?) and the occurrence of alliteration. I was able to use direct references from the text and "clearly express my ideas". I was "competent".

However, I failed to have a convincing argument. I did not "dive" into the text as I should have. Although I identified alliteration, I simply skirted around its purpose. I did not examine how alliteration "grouped" the insults and made the narrator appear more angry by speeding up the pace of the text. I also failed to identify the poem as a sonnet (embarrassing). In fact, I did not look at the way the poem was structured at all, which took away some of my understanding. Also, my identification of vanity once again failed to go in depth and I didn't really address the narrator's inward struggle. My analysis of the complexity in this piece was greatly lacking. My main problem in poetry comes from a lack of understanding, a lack of complexity and a lack of knowledge about poem structure. 

In order to improve upon my lackluster analysis skills, I have set three goals for myself .

1. I will familiarize myself with poetic structures and terms (What is a Sonnet?). If I actually know what type of poem I'm looking at, then I'll be able to better analyze the text. In the 5 steps to a 5 book, there is actually a section that lists out all the poetic forms and different poetry terms. I will memorize this section and look for examples of each poetic structure so that I can better identify what I'm reading.

2. I will completely divulge the complexity. Like with my prose passages, I will start looking at more poetry and I will try to find the complexity in each one through careful analysis. I will do this once a week and then check my analysis with professional ones online and see what complexity I correctly identified ore missed.

3. I will make more fluid transitions. I failed to create cohesion throughout the whole piece by tying it back to my general thesis (like the 8/9 essays did in our norming activity). By creating better transitions, I will elevate my writing and create a more connected essay that ties all my ideas up into a beautiful present for my grader. To do this, I will practice writing essay outlines with transitions included to improve on my essay cohesion.

If I accomplish all of these goals, I will soon be able to understand poets (and I'll know it).