1. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” by Sir Philip Sidney

2. Sir Philip Sidney:
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)
Sir Philip Sidney was a true Renaissance Man- Knight, soldier, diplomat, patron, ideal Elizabethan courtier, Petrarchan sonneteer, politician; literary critic—
Known for writing the first piece of English literary criticism during the English Renaissance, In Defense of Poesy
Desires denied: Love—betrothed several times and the engagements fall through, waited for political appointments that never happened; was heir apparent to a title and wealth that he never receved
Staunch protestant supporter, with a classical Renaissance education
Our poem was written about 1598, and is #31 of a collection called Certain Sonnets
Fought Spanish in Zupten, Holland
Thigh wound; dies 26 days later of gangrene
Lyrics composed and performed while dying
What historians remember
What students and nay-sayers will remember

3. Two Rhetorical Parts of an Argument
Sonnet Traits
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 (volta) Couplet
abab cdcd efef gg
Spenserian 3 Quatrains (volta) Couplet
abab bcbc cdcd ee
Sidney 2 Quatrains (volta) 2 Tercets*
(Quatorzain) abab baba bcc bcc
*(always ending in a couplet)
Volta (turn) = main shift in all sonnets
Two Rhetorical Parts of an Argument
Question—Answer
Problem—Solution
I like teaching sonnets to begin our study of poetry because sonnets have so many clues to unraveling meaning within their forms. They are a great introduction to poetic terminology.
This year’s poem is a form of a sonnet, and though they have seen it before I review sonnet traits and form with my students
This year’s poem requires students to really understand form—If they take short cuts in labeling rhyme scheme (such as English sonnets always end in a couplet), they are missing some clues
We discuss the basics: 14 lines, iambic pentameter, the three basic rhyme schemes, where the volta or shift occurs, and how knowing the division help students decode the meaning
Don’t just label; analyze how the rhyme scheme develops meaning
Use the rhyme scheme to analyze the argument
Students on autopilot did not notice the way the quatrains and couplets work together to convey meaning. There are two main rhetorical parts to all of these sonnets that pose question-answer; problem solution. The punctuation indicating the caesuras also marks the form. There is a period at the end of the two quatrains (or octave as most of the students labeled it.)
From the French quatorze (fourteen), a quatorzain is a poem similar to the sonnet. It consists of 14 rhymed iambic lines divided into two tercets (a group of three lines of verse) and two quatrains (a group of four lines of verse), and always ending in a couplet (unlike sonnets, which do not always do so). Technically, most of the Elizabethan sonnet sequences were truly composed of quatorzains, not sonnets, but few 16th-century poets made the distinction (an exception being Michael Drayton). Some critics also believe that Sir Philip Sidney employed the form deliberately in his collection Certain Sonnets, which contains a miscellany of forms. Later poets, such as John Donne, clarified the two forms.

4. “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”: Quatorzain Rhyme Scheme
Thou snare, a
Fond thought; b
Band care; a
Thou wrought; b
Desire. . . bought, b
With ware; a
Too brought, b
Who prepare a
But sought; b
In aspire; c
In fire; c
For taught— b
Within hire, c
Desiring desire c

5. The Prompt In the following poem by Sir Philip Sidney
( ), the speaker addresses the subject of
desire. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-
developed essay in which you analyze how poetic
devices help to convey the speaker’s complex
attitude toward desire.
Prompt Clues:
Sidney--Renaissance
Renaissance;
English Counter Reformation; Mary
Elizabeth I
Which poetic devices?
Complex=more than one
I ask my students to take a few minutes to analyze the prompt before they launch into analyzing the poem, underlining key directions and hints

6. Beginning Analysis: Diction, Imagery, Language
Circle HOT tone words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs)
Bracket imagery
Box figurative language
Underline other observations
(e.g., repetition, alliteration, point of view)
Categorize—What are the effects?
I ask my students to do some really artificial annotations and planning as we study poetry, write weekly poetry journals, and essays because some will not unless I require them to do.
I also ask students to write out their planning. Under the pressure of the test—3 essays in 2 hours—they often need this kind of game plan. Annotations help students visualize and categorize.
How do students begin to analyze poetry; Sonnets are a great beginning because of the conventions
Annotation and planning—this is the first year we can see what used to be the green booklets.

7. 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.
I ask students to look at their annotations and decide which evidence will support the best argument, given the time constraint. They may be able to label the rhyme scheme, but will they help them explain the complexity of attitude the best? It depends on the student.
These are just some basic reminders of how to write in ways that show the reader that you do understand the poem.

8. 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, juxtaposition,
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
In your handouts you’ll see this handout: What do you want students to see?
Frank’s question to TL’s
This was year of no list of poetic devices, but this is a list of things the TL’s saw
The graphic is Blind Cupid, alluded to in the title
Asyndeton list of phrases joined without conjunctions (“We came, we saw, we conquered. . .” )
Anaphora Repetition of words (or groups of words) at the beginning of phrases
Modern English has dropped a set of pronouns and verbs called the "familiar" or "thee and thou" forms once used among close friends and family and to children, inferiors, animals, and inanimate objects. These old forms did, though, survive into Elizabethan England and appear frequently in Shakespeare.
Imperatives are in 2nd person; commands; accusatory

9. 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!)
Perrine’s Question
Who is the speaker?
Who is addressed?
What is the situation?
What is the tone?
Are there any shifts?
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 tactile
gustatory auditory
olfactory organic
kinetic kinesthetic
***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

10. “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
I’d like to invite Robert Brown to read our poem. As he reads listen and look at the handout and see if you see what readers saw.
Robert Brown Reads
Perrine’s questions; work through cheat sheet.
Walk through the poem; paraphrase; point out observations
Octave vs Sestet overall differences.
Octave= critical of desire and its powerful yet destructive abilities; Condesceding “Thou” ; 2nd person;
catalog of metaphors; problem of desire; more alliteration; emphasize the imagery, despising tone; vices of desire listed
Repetition of Vain (in vain-hopeless) and vain—(proud vanity); Sestet—what desire attempted to do to the speaker, yet unsuccessful
Sestet temptations of desire thwarted, defeated; deceptiveness of image thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
The absolute solution lies within the speaker; emphasized by ending couplet; the lessons of virtue taught speaker to seek his own reward and focus, desire the ultimate destruction: to destroy desire

11. Poetry Analysis: Diction
Thou blind man’s mark, thou fool’s self-chosen snare, A
Fond fancy’s scum, and dregs of scattered thought; B
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care; A
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought; B
Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought, B
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware; A
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought, B
Who should my mind to higher things prepare. A
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought; B
In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire; C
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire; C
For virtue hath this better lesson taught— B
Within myself to seek my only hire, C
Desiring naught but how to kill desire. C
Looking at the diction is a great beginner. It’s not intimidating and they have good epiphanies about how the author is using words when they begin to categorize and group similiar wods

12. 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

13. “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
Inversion = anastrophe
Scum floats at the top; dregs—sediment that drifts to the bottom; dregs of society; last bit of wine
Not just the scattered thoughts, but the dregs—the worst—of those scattered thoughts
Metaphors often used to characterize or personify desire
Anastrophe stresses the object over the subject; the effect emphasized—End of octave

14. “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
Inversion = anastrophe
Scum floats at the top; dregs—sediment that drifts to the bottom; dregs of society; last bit of wine
Not just the scattered thoughts, but the dregs—the worst—of those scattered thoughts
Metaphors often used to characterize or personify desire
Irony of last three lines: Chiasmus Repetition of ideas in inverted order
Repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order
Virtue taught the lesson; w/I myself is my only reward; desire nothing—but how to kill desire
Anastrophe stresses the object over the subject; the effect emphasized—End of octave; desire brings worthless wares, items; causes speaker to value worthless wares--as one asleep; muddles thought—TONE; attitude of speaker toward desire and its treatment of him
Sestet: Repetition and parallelism emphasize defeated, thwarted desire “in vain”=unsuccessful; “vain things”=vanity; silly, foolish, irrelevant; ability of the speaker to triumph;
Ironic twist—did the speaker triumph in the last line—desire required to kill desire; desiring naught=pun—desire nothing; continue the line; desire needed.

15. Author uses x to reveal y, implying z.
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
Show how you know is my catch phrase for students. The math/science types like a formula or a template for which they can plug in terms and concepts.