Desire Essay (Blog Post #5)

                  Desire in the sense of motivation, can be the driving force behind an individual’s actions.  However, it can also be one’s undoing, if not checked and balanced with safeguards and personal restraint.  It would appear that the speaker of Philip Sidney’s poem, has fallen careless of the temptation of desire and now suffers from its “cradle of causeless care” (3).  It is thus revealed that the speaker, remains extrinsically motivated to place blame on the fool, arriving at the conclusion that his own personal desire must be vanquished to reach a former sense of dignity.   Through old English, multiple alliterations and repetition of blame, this extrinsic culpability is placed on the fool with the realization that the fool is actually himself. 

                The speaker primarily uses ‘thou’ in the passage, with translates from old English to you.  To accuse that ‘you’ did this to me, is the base example of how the speaker conveys his loathing for the fool, “thou hast my ruin sought” (9).  This would imply that the speaker’s personal ruin was not of his own doing, and that his ‘vanity’ was derived from ‘thou’.  ‘Thou’ was the one tempting him with desire, “Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought” (4).  His undoing, as it appears in this line, is not the result of his own personal actions, but that of ‘thou’ voracious resolve for the speaker. 

             

                “Fond fancy’s scum” (2) epitomizes the use of alliteration in portraying the speaker’s loathe for ‘thou’, while “dregs of scattered thought” (2) would suggest of his own personal fallibility.  Many times did the speaker describe his own fallibility through alliteration, like “mangled mind, thy worthless ware” (6).  In this instance the speaker is citing the combination of desire’s contempt for him, and his ignorant acceptance of its superficial enticement, to underline where he went wrong.  Now the contrast between blaming the fool and becoming the fool is hinted, and underlined figuratively through these poetic devices.   In the beginning of the poem, this is revealed through the alliteration, “thou fool’s self –chosen snare” (1) an epitome in the acceptance of personal responsibility for one’s own actions.

                Lastly, the vanity of the speaker is repeated consistently throughout the middle and ending of the poem.  “In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire; In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire…” (10-11).  In maintaining senselessness, the speaker sought ought pointless rewards and temporary habits that led to his despondence.  He accepted these willingly with pleasure and complacency, in an unintelligent manner.  He repeats this critical notion more than twice, suggesting that the desire has gotten the best of him, and the fool is ironically himself.  Interestingly, the speaker continues to convey the problem, without offering possible solutions, “Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought, who should my mind to higher things prepare” (7-8).  Such is the nature of many humans to linger on a problem without proposing a resolution, as identified by this passage.  However, the speaker does provide an enduring resolve, “Desiring naught but how to kill desire” (14), which would suggest that although the fool he is for falling for desire, he understands this notion, accepts, and now resolves to fight it eternally.  Thus, is revealed that the fool the speaker thought was fooling him with desire, was the fool himself, and the irony of situation for the speaker is figuratively demonstrated through this self-examination.

 

 Reflection

         For the first poetry essay, I think I did very well to improve on my goals from my former "prose passage" essays.  I included many apt and specific references and provided a better analysis of each set of evidence to tie back to my thesis, which highlighted the main idea behind the passage.  I also felt that this prompt was slightly more easier, than other prompts particularly because the passage theme was about desire, a part of the human condition that every one can relate to and understand on an emotional level.  I also felt that the directions behind each of these passages are close to redundant, as they ask the student to address how the author conveys the complexity or meaning through devices.  This brings me to the consideration that the AP Test will probably include at least one prompt asking the student to examine how the author conveys a form of complexity or meaning, and it would be ideal to take my own personal steps towards cultivating my approach and analysis in answering these particular prompts. 

       In addressing an area for improvement, I would like to describe my difficulty in clearly identifying three poetic devices to discuss when examining complexity.  There were two poetic devices that distinctly stood out to me, and these included repetition and alliteration.  I knew that there were more devices in the poem, like format, pace, rhyme, and personification that I could have used to describe three devices in three distinct paragraphs, but I could not find the evidence to connect back to how the author conveyed complexity through those devices.  Since I was on a time limit, I selected old English as a poetic device that I would use in one of my paragraphs to write about, hardly a device at all.  This brings me to the realization that I might need to study rhetorical and poetic devices.  There were many tools that the author used to connect the paradox and irony throughout his work,  and to understand a variety of these tools, will help mainly to identify such devices and then be able to connect them back to the "how."

       Additionally, I felt that I did much better in identifying complexity throughout my essay.  In my essay, I tried to describe what I thought was a contrast in the speaker's desires.  "It is thus revealed that the speaker, remains extrinsically motivated to place blame on the fool, arriving at the conclusion that his own personal desire must be vanquished to reach a former sense of dignity.   Through old English, multiple alliterations and repetition of blame, this extrinsic culpability is placed on the fool with the realization that the fool is actually himself."  I now realize that the better term in describing complexity for this situation is actually paradox, as there was a contradiction when the speaker described his desire to destroy desire itself.  However, I was able to cite the situational irony of the speaker when stated this, in identifying the paradoxical nature of desiring to destroy desire.   I also feel that my knowledge of psychology from AP Psychology also helped for me to connect extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as the driving force for the speaker, which I used to portray the changing tone of the speaker. 

       Lastly, I find that after norming the paginations of this prompt, I realize that my writing will need to become more sophisticated and mature.  Currently, I right in the five-body paragraph model, which helps to ensure a safe and sound essay, that will most of the time, earn me a five.  However, I realize that the higher scoring essays don't necessarily follow this model, and they include sophistication that goes beyond the simple analysis of each evidence to portray complexity, while citing historical archetypes with English jargon.  I hope to use this year and this class to help improve my writing as a whole, and introduce me to new archetypes and means of writing.