In Sir Philip Sidney’s Thou Blind Man’s Mark, the speaker addresses the subject of desire and conveys how desire is an illusion cast upon oneself that corrupts an individual into fools who struggle as his efforts are wasted. Utilizing personified imagery, elaborated repetitions, and diction evident paradoxes, the speaker conveys his complex attitude towards desire.
From the poem, various phrases depicting traps and lures can be spotted, such as “self-chose harm,” “web of will,” and “smoky fires.” Such phrases seeks to depict images of confinment and invokes a sense of futile escape, which is further amplified as the personification of desire corralates to each given imagery. Desire takes the form of various catalysts as creatures or things from which the sense of confinment stems from. A snare must be set by someone, a spider must tangle the web, and sparks must kindle fires. Through imagery and textual examples, the peome seeks to personify desire as a creature stalking and entangling its prey. Moreover, the phrase “asleep thou hast me brought,” gives life to desire as if it were a creature disrupting dreams. Each trap described indicates a foolish action the speakers takes in order to fulfill his desire. As desire sets more traps, the speaker becomes…show more content… A butterfly would twitch and jerk hoping to escape, and the speaker as well, will struggle through obstactles for his most desired. Yet, no matter the amount of effort, the butterfly struggles and has wasted the last of its energy struggling until desire’s fangs sunk into it’s flesh. The speaker’s efforts too, will come to naught as desire deplets and leaves him in ruins. All of the speaker’s actions, driven by desire, is signified as repeated shouts seeking to invoke a sense of futility despite constant