The speaker in Sir Philip Sidney’s Thou Blind Man’s Mark is troubled by his feelings of desire. Through the use of personification, it is clear that the speaker feels helplessly controlled by something out of his hands; however, by the end, he regains power, demonstrating a shift in attitude.
During the first three quatrains, the speaker feels as though he is being controlled by his superficial desires. To express that he is not himself, desire is personified. It takes on a physical form who “hast [his] ruin sought” (9). Desire has come to life with the very specific intention to ruin the speaker’s life. Using this language conveys the idea that desire is not something the speaker can control because he does not see it as a part of himself. Furthermore, the language used characterizes desire as a relentless being who is constantly picking at the speaker's mind. His animosity toward desire is made very clear. It has even made him dread sleep. Sleep should be an escape from his needy mind, but it is not because desire haunts his dreams as well. The speaker would rather his “mind to higher things prepare” (8) while conscious so that he can think without desire constantly suggesting that he needs material things to remain joyful. He prefers…show more content… Its target is described as a “blind man’s mark” (1), which is the title of the sonnet. A blind man cannot see where he is shooting, so whatever he strikes is hit randomly. Similar to the blind man who is unaware of where he is aiming, desire did not chose his victim, the speaker. Including this comparison demonstrates the lack of control desire has, which makes the speaker feel even more helpless. He is being controlled by this force that cannot control itself. Desire having no reins on itself allows it to infect the speaker with vain thoughts, and there seems to be no way to contain it. It appears that the speaker knows vanity is not a valuable quality, yet he is unable to control
