How Would You Teach It:
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark”
by
Sir Philip Sidney
AP English Literature Reading
Louisville, Kentucky
June 11, 2012
Brenda Buckley-Kuhn
Pinewood Preparatory School
Summerville, South Carolina
bkuhn@pinewoodprep.com
Sir Philip Sidney: 1554-1586
•
Renaissance Man: Knight, soldier, diplomat, patron, ideal Elizabethan
courier, Petrarchan sonneteer, politician; literary critic
•
Desires denied: Love, political appointments, inherited wealth
•
Sonnets show political, court and foreign policy tensions
•
Calvinist background; Humanistic education: Latin classics
•
1598 Certain Sonnets (No. 31 “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”)
•
Major Works: Astrophel and Stella; Defense of Poesy
•
Dies of gangrene 26 days after thigh injury: “The Broken Thigh”
"Among the gilded youth of Elizabethan England—he was one of the most
promising young men of his time." Biographer Allen Stewart
“Sidney’s face was ‘spoiled with pimples’
says Ben Johnson “wryly distancing himself from the virtual Sidney cult
that had arisen in the years after his death.” (1619)
The Prompt
In the following poem by Sir Philip Sidney
(1554-1586), the speaker addresses the subject of
desire. Read the poem carefully. Then write a welldeveloped essay in which you analyze how poetic
devices help to convey the speaker’s complex
attitude toward desire.
Prompt Clues:
Sidney--Renaissance
1554-1586 Renaissance;
English Counter Reformation; Mary
Elizabeth I
Which poetic devices?
Complex=more than one
Sonnet Traits Review
Sonnets = lyrics---they convey intense emotion
14 lines; iambic pentameter; two rhetorical parts
Italian/Petrarchan
Octave
+ (volta) Sestet
abba abba cdcdcd or cdecde
English/Shakespearean
3 Quatrains +
abab cdcd efef
(volta) Couplet
gg
Spenserian
3 Quatrains +
abab bcbc cdcd
(volta) Couplet
ee
Sidney
(Quatorzain)
2 Quatrains +
abab baba
(volta) 2 Tercets*
bcc bcc
*(always ending in a couplet)
Volta (turn) = main shift in all sonnets
Two Rhetorical Parts of an Argument
Question—Answer
Problem—Solution
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark”:
Quatorzain Rhyme Scheme
Thou . . . snare,
Fond . . . thought;
Band . . . care;
Thou . . . wrought;
a
b
a
b
Desire. . . bought,
With . . . ware;
Too . . . brought,
Who . . . prepare.
b
a
b
a
But . . . sought;
In . . . aspire;
In . . . fire;
b
c
c
For . . . taught—
Within . . . hire,
Desiring . . . desire.
b
c
c
What Do You Want Students to See?
Who is the speaker?
Who is addressed?
What is the situation?
Poetic devices?
What are the attitudes?
How do you know?
Poetic Terminology
Complexity: (more than one) of Attitude toward desire
Irony: Title--What is a blind man’s mark (target)? Final couplet
Classical Allusion: Cupid (blind man)
Structure: sonnet; shift; recognize problem/solution argument; irony of final couplet
Figurative Language: alliteration, apostrophe, personification, metaphors
Imagery: Not just visual
Rhetorical Devices: repetition, parallelism, anaphora (repetition of initial words, phrases),
puns, paradoxes/opposites, chiasmus, catalog, juxtaposition, asyndeton
Syntactical: anastrophe (inversion); length of line
Point of View: 1st; 2nd person familiar (thou, thee, thy, thine)
Analysis: Use poetry terminology and textural support; show HOW you know
Poetry Analysis Cheat Sheet
LEAD (Diction Analysis)
L=Low or Informal (dialect, slang, jargon)
E=Elevated or Formal
A=Abstract or Concrete
D=Denotation or Connotation
Monosyllabic
Polysyllabic
Colloquial (Slang) Informal (Conversational)
Formal (Literary) Old-Fashioned/Antiquated
Euphonious
Cacophonous
(Any new words? Look them up!)
Other Poetry Elements
form (e.g., sonnet, sestina)
figurative language: figures of speech
figures of sound
rhyme scheme
meter
rhetoric
syntax
symbols
details
Imagery:
visual
gustatory
olfactory
kinetic
tactile
auditory
organic
kinesthetic
Perrine’s Question
Who is the speaker?
Who is addressed?
What is the situation?
What is the tone?
Are there any shifts?
***HOW does the language convey the
COMPLEX TONE, MEANING, AND
THEME?****_________________________
TONE
HOT Tone words convey emotion
COMPLEX = MORE THAN ONE
(+ ) (-) IRONY HUMOR________________
TP-CASTT
DIDLS
T=title
D=Diction
P=paraphrase
I=Imagery
C=connotation
D=Details
A=attitude
L=Language
S=shifts
S=Sentence Structure
T=title
T=theme
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark”
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target
2reward
Beginning Analysis:
Diction, Imagery, Language
Circle HOT tone words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs)
Bracket imagery
Box figurative language
Underline other observations
(e.g., repetition, alliteration, parallelism,
point of view)
Categorize—What are the effects?
Poetry Analysis: Diction
Thou blind man’s mark, thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
------But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;C
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
A
B
A
B
B
A
B
A
B
C
B
C
C
Imagery and Alliteration
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target
2reward
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Metaphors and Anastrophe
Thou = Desire
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target
2reward
“Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Repetition and Parallelism
Thou blind man’s mark,1 thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought;
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For virtue hath this better lesson taught—
Within myself to seek my only hire,2
Desiring naught but how to kill desire.
1target
2reward
Evidence for the Best Argument
Which poetic devices reveal meaning the best?
Where are they in the poem? Embed quotations.
What does each device do? Effects?
How does the device accomplish its effect?
Use 2-3 sentences to explicate/analyze.
Use 2-3 pieces of evidence per paragraph.
Show How You Know
Author uses x to reveal y, implying z.
x = language element (quote it)
y = effect, meaning, tone
z = theme, thoughtful inference
Sidney’s Parting Curse to Poesy Critics
From The Defense of Poesy:
Perhaps some readers (Gossom and poesy critics)
“cannot hear the planet-like music of poetry.”
If so, then if the reader has
“so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself
up to look to the sky of poetry” then “I must
send you in the behalf of all poets:—that while
you live in love, and never get favor for lacking
skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your
memory die from the earth for want of an
epitaph.”