Thou blind man’s mark

Written by Sir Philip Sidney

Poem summary:
In the poem “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” Sir Philip Sidney conveys how desire affects one’s
mind and drives the mind. In the poem, the author continually expresses how desire
changes people’s perceptions and controls their minds. The poem starts out with Sidney
expressing distraught feelings towards desire, and its effect on the mind. Like how he
describes desire as the “Blind man’s mark” and how desire affects everyone and
especially making them unaware of what will happen if they were to follow that desire. He
also calls those who are captivated by desire as “fool’s self-chosen snare” and how those
who are affected by desire are choosing to fall into their own traps and if they were not
fools desire would not capture them.
poem explanation:
In lines 1-4, Sir Sidney uses a series of imagery-invoking metaphors
describing the topic before revealing what it is. The first descriptions, a
blind man’s mark” and “fool’s self-chosen snare”, are both ironic. First, it
is ridiculous for a blind man to have a “mark”, or target, as the blind man
would be unable to see it, and therefore he would be unable to hit it with
any degree of accuracy, only striking it occasionally by chance. As for a
“fool’s self-chosen snare”, only a foolish person indeed would choose
their own snare instead of attempting to avoid the danger. In this, he is, to
an extent, calling himself a fool, as he recognizes that at times he has
strayed in the swamp of desires in his mind and become lost and soiled
in it. If the first line shows the foolishness of desire.
Up until line five, Sir Sidney has not yet revealed what he is talking about.
Like a will o’ the wisp in a bog, he lures us into his feelings about the
subject before revealing the object of his contempt in a burst: “Desire,

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desire!” This section, from line five to line eleven gives desire some
human aspects and motives through personification. The poet speaks as
if desire can respond, and throughout the section, he makes it seem as if
desire “hast my ruin sought” even if “in vain”. This implies that desire is
never a good thing and is flawed, because it cannot even achieve the
goal of ruining its victim. Following from that.
The final part of the poem, lines twelve through fourteen, focuses on a
value which “virtue hath this better lesson taught”. Here he portrays virtue
as opposing desire. So, if desire is a swamp we become lost in, then
virtue is the brilliant and guiding sun that leads us out of the it. So instead
of pointless, vain, and useless, virtue is purposeful, pragmatic, and
useful. The lesson Sir Sydney speaks of is that one’s “only hire” should
be “how to kill desire”. He does use an oxymoron in the final line,
however, stating “Desiring naught but how to kill desire”. This shows that
he believes that the only desire one should have is to rid oneself of
desire, but since this desire is through virtue, the goal can actually be
accomplished, and one will eventually emerge from the murky bog and
be free from “web of will” that is desire.
Figures of speech:
❖ Personification: the poet expresses throughout the poem that desire
acts as a form of self-destruction.
❖ Conceit: physical vs mental as he depicts the blind mind with the blind
man who is unable to see with.
❖ Anaphora: (in vain)

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Comment;
In my point of view the poet pictured his conflict with a very good way.
This conflict that shows people desires to rise above everyone and
ambition. The only disagreement is that it is very negative thing.

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Sonnet 18
Written by Shakespeare
Poem summary:
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are
devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what
mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more
lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they
are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”)
often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too
short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair
sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the
beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last
forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the
couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish
this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will
last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
Poem explanation:
The opening line is almost a tease, reflecting the speaker's uncertainty
as he attempts to compare his lover to a summer's day. The rhetorical
question is posed for both speaker and reader, and even the metrical
stance of this first line is open to conjecture. Is it pure iambic
pentameter? This comparison will not be straightforward. This image of
the perfect English summer's day is then surpassed as the second line
reveals that the lover is more lovely and more temperate.
The second line refers directly to the lover with the use of the second-
person pronoun Thou, which is now archaic.

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As the sonnet progresses, lines three through eight concentrates on the

ups and downs of the weather and are distanced, taken along on a
steady iambic rhythm (except for line five as discussed later).
Summertime in England is a hit-and-miss affair weather-wise. Winds
blow, rainclouds gather and before you know where you are, summer
has come and gone in a week. The season seems all too short—that's
as true today as it was in Shakespeare's time—and people tend to moan
when it's too hot and grumble when it's overcast.
Lines nine through twelve turn the argument for aging on its head. The
speaker states with a renewed assurance that "thy eternal summer shall
not fade" and that his lover shall stay fair and even cheat death and time
by becoming eternal.
Lines 13 and 14 reinforce the idea that the speaker's (poet's) poem will
guarantee that the lover remains young, the written word becoming their
breath and vital energy and ensuring their life continues.
Figures of speech:
❖ Metaphor: the vagaries of the English summer weather are called up
again and again as the speaker attempts to put everything into
perspective. Finally, the lover's beauty, metaphorically an eternal
summer, will be preserved forever in the poet's immortal lines.
❖ Personification: “rough winds do shake” the act of shaking is kind of a
human action

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Mac Fleckone
Written by john Dryden
Poem summary:
The play is narrated by the poet (Dryden) in the third-person perspective
and is introduced as “A Satire on the True-blue Protestant T.S.,” or
Thomas Shadwell.
The poet introduces Flecknoe, who like the Roman ruler Augustus, was
called to rule when he was young. He rules the peaceful realm of
Nonsense now but is growing old and decides that Fate wants him to
settle the business of the State.
Flecknoe ponders which of his sons should succeed him in warring
eternally with wit. It will be the one who resembles him most: Shadwell,
who even while young in years is mature in dullness. He is “confirm’d in
full stupidity” (line 18), and while some of his brothers occasionally grasp
meaning, he never has any sense at all. Other people are illuminated by
beams of wit, but Shadwell’s “genuine night admits no ray” (line 23). His
“fogs” (line 24) clog up the day and his elaborate, histrionic clothing is
thoughtless like the thoughtless monarch oaks that solemnly rule over
the plain.
Poem explanation:
Lines 1-2
All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey:
Dryden begins with a lofty commentary on mortality, God, and kings, his
introduction to what we can only assume will be a grandiose epic of
Homeric proportions. As we will soon discover, the entirety of the poem
is written in rhymed heroic couplets, typical of the epic style.
Lines 3-6
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long:

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In prose and verse, was own'd, without dispute

Through all the realms of non-sense, absolute.
In these lines we get a sense of the poem's true tone, in all its biting,
sarcastic glory.
Here's our first appearance from the title character, one Mac Flecknoe,
the monarch spoken of in line 2. This could be a reference to Richard
Flecknoe, an earlier English poet likely of Irish origin. Flecknoe was
regarded to be a poetaster—basically someone who writes bad poetry—
known for having to pay to get his poems published
Like Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, Flecknoe's rule was long and
successful. But of course, Flecknoe's domain isn't Rome, but rather the
"realms of non-sense," of which he is the poet-king. This distinction does
not reflect well on his literary talents.
Lines 7-14
This aged prince now flourishing in peace,
And blest with issue of a large increase,
Worn out with business, did at length debate
To settle the succession of the State:
And pond ‘ring which of all his sons was fit
To reign, and wage immortal war with wit.
Cry'd, 'tis resolv'd; for nature pleads that he
Should only rule, who most resembles me:
The end of our king's life is near, however, and it is time now for him to
declare his successor to the throne. He has been blessed with a "large
increase” and he must choose which one of his children will inherit the
kingdom. He will choose the heir who is most like the king himself, in wit
and poetic ability
Lines 15-18
Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dullness from his tender years.

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Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he

Who stands confirmed in full stupidity?
Enter Thomas Shadwell, the hapless subject of Dryden's ire. Instead of
writing out the full name of "Shadwell," Dryden's original text reads
"She—", implying a certain scatological expletive. It also implies the
name of the writer: Shadwell. In his supreme dullness and stupidity, it is
Shadwell alone who appears fit to inherit the throne from Flecknoe. They
had religious differences, too, given Dryden's Catholic sympathies and
Shadwell's Protestantism. This festering contentiousness between the
two writers reached a boiling point when Shadwell published "The Medal
of John Bayes" in 1682, which attacked Dryden head-on.
Lines 19-24
The rest to some faint meaning makes pretense,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through and make a lucid interval.
But Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fogs prevail upon the day:
Back to the realm of nonsense, where Shadwell is undeviatingly daft and
impenetrably dense. No beam of intelligence or wit can reach him in his
"genuine night." In other words, he's a complete moron.
Lines 25-30
Besides his goodly fabric fills the eye,
And seems designed for thoughtless majesty:
Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain,
And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign.
Heywood and Shirley were but types of thee,
Thou last great prophet of tautology:
Dryden then references two earlier English poets and playwrights: John
Heywood and James Shirley. Neither of these two writers garnered

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much acclaim during their day, presumably preparing the way for more
lackluster writers to come. A "tautology" is basically just a redundancy,
the unnecessary repetition of information. Dryden accuses these poets,
most importantly Shadwell himself, of bad, illogical writing.
Figures of speech:
• Metaphors:
1- In lines 21-23 Dryden uses metaphor as a figure of speech to illustrate
Shadwell's stupidity. Wit is compared to rays of light that brighten
someone's mind. Thus, other poets may be illuminated by beams of wit
sometimes, but Shadwell’s “genuine night admits no ray”
2- "Shadwell's genuine night admits no ray, / His rising fogs prevail upon
the day" (lines 23-24). Dryden uses a metaphor of night and fog to show
how Shadwell is all darkness and obfuscation, admitting no light or
sense.
• Simile:
1- Shadwell is "Thoughtless as monarch oaks, that shade the plain" (line
27). This suggests he is still, dull, and lacking in dynamism.
2- In line three, the poet uses simile to compare Flecknoe to a great king
of ancient Roman empire, king Augustus.
• Personification: "Fate summons" (line 2).
• Anaphora: Shadwell alone my perfect image bears,
Mature in dullness from his tender years.
Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he
Who stands confirmed in full stupidity.

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