Desires are an imprecation to a man gone blind as they scatter thought and mangle minds. These desires are the framework for “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” where Sir Philip Sidney presents the way a sad, regretful blind man overcomes desires and becomes self-achieved; in addition, Sidney supports these tones using repeated diction, irony, and imagery to create the situation the character must overcome.
The first quatrain presents desires as evil and destructive to a blind man although it was “thou fool’s self-chosen snare”, for he attacks a target—desires—he cannot hit. Here, the blind man is trying to destroy his desires but was trapped as there is no way of getting rid of the desires in his mind. These desires are evil, emphasized by the break in the iambic pentameter of line three by the word “evils” showing the connection to desires, and alliteration in “cradle of causeless care” brings focus on desires as being the gateway to worthless lives. The two diction emphasizers bring out the qualities of desires to create the major obstacles that the man must overcome causing this quatrain to take on a sad tone.…show more content… Voluntarily having desires was a trap destroying the man’s brain and seemed worthless but it changed his outlook and caused him to think about more philosophical and important things; furthermore, this connection is reinforced by the complementary rhyming of “ware”, representing desires, with “prepare”, the outcome of having those desires. This foreshadows a change in the man’s outlook and the