In class essay 2

Of all the complex human emotions that we must deal with, desire can certainty be one of the most powerful and motivating. Yet, as Sir Phillip Sydney detailed in his excellent poem "Thou Blind Man's Mark," desire does not always motivate to positive gain or for good reason. In a poem that uses poetic devices such as parallelism, tone, and diction, Sydney elaborately portrays his attitude that chasing desire is a "Blind Man's Mark," or a fools errand.

Sydney's critical tone filled with his feeling of animosity strongly show his attitude toward desire. Syndey writes with a tone that clearly shows his strong dislike of desire. He is angrily pointing out all the wrongs that come from the emotion. "Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self chosen snare" and "Band of all evils, cradle of causelesscare" both elaborate how he is devaluing desire, and doing so with passion. The the angry and critical tone Sydney uses shows his idea that chasing desire is pointless.

Utilizing a diction of words hinting at wastefulness, Sydney highlights his attitude towards desire. Syndey finds  chasing desires pointless, a waste of time that traps people oblivious to its dangers. Words such as "fool's self chosen snare" and "worthless ware" fill Sydney's diction to implement his meaning to a fuller extent. The diction Sydney uses elaborate on his attitude toward desire even further.

Several times Sydney uses similar sentence structure to demonstrate to his reader his attitude on desire. In the lines "In vain thou hast my ruin sought, In vain though madest me to vain things aspire, In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire," there is an obvious similar sentence structure to each line. This parallelism details Sydney's own struggles with desire. How it failed to ruin him by making him desire worthless things that only create "smoky fires," which is a euphemism for something with a bad result. Using parallelism, Sydney highlights his attitude of the worthlessness of desire.

Sir Phillip Sydney strongly feels that the pursuit of desires is a waste of ones time and will only lead to false rewards. He emphasizes this ideal in his poem "Thou Blind Man's Mark," clearly displaying his dislike for desire. In order to show his attitude toward the fruitless emotion, Sydney utilizes poetic devices such as parallelism, tone, and diction.