Here's my essay for today (meaning April 30, so yesterday?), in all its flawed glory. I cleaned up little mistakes as I found them, but I likely created even more with typos. Admittedly, I was really sleepy today so the essay is a lot less focused than I would have liked. Regardless, I would appreciate feedback!
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Sir Philip Sidney explores the confusing complexity of desire in his poem "The Blind Man's Mark". This analysis in prose of a complicated human emotion is only possible because Sir Philip Sidney employs a variety of different techniques whose cumulative effects result in something unique. Sidney explores the two conflicting faces of desire. One is the ambition it inspires, and the other is the frivolous mindset it results in.
Through much of the poem, Sidney characterizes desire in an almost drug-like fashion. It is ultimately a personal choice to pursue these desires, but by definition they posses a certain magnanimous [this word is misused here, but I was more or less writing based on instinct at this point, despite having a decent pre-write] attraction that makes resistance difficult. Desire is at once sought out and destructive. An emphasis is placed on this illogical phenomenon through the persistent use of contrast. Phrases such as "fond fancy's scum" and "self-chosen snare" are bizarrely contradictory when independent of the poem. However, coupled with the theme of desire's decadent tendencies, all of the pieces support each other.
Sidney not only addresses the abstract incongruity associated with desire, but also the concrete effects it has. A choice of frenetic words and phrases such as "scattered thought" and "price of mangled mind" infer a certain level of confusion. Added to the assertion that desire is generally vain, the reader is given a very deliberate impression of desire as an emotion that does little but cloud thoughts. If this polarizing diction is not enough, Sidney uses emotionally charged diction to drive home his stance. The poem shifts at line 9 to a much more personal account. At this point, desire is actively trying to "ruin" the speaker. By the poem's end, desire is personified so heavily that the reader wishes to actually kill it.
In the poem, desire is evaluated both objectively and subjectively. An unbiased look at desire addresses its strangely contradictory split between free will and addiction, so to speak. At the same time, Sidney inserts the speaker as a highly personal warning against desire. Both of these methods results in a different perspective, but both clearly indicate the dangers of desire's allure.
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