Desire/Thou Blind Man's Mark

[Toycona]

I was in Louisville, KY, reading AP exams last week, and a friend of mine and I put the poetry prompt - Sir Philip Sydney's renaissance sonnet "Thou Blind Man's Mark" - to music. Let me know if you recognize the melody we chose.

Link to our version: http://soundcloud.com/kevin-meehan/desire

Here's the poem...

Thou Blind Man's Mark


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 shouldst 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,
Desiring nought but how to kill desire.

[yorick]

And it was a fine live performance, a great way to start our last day of rating.
To all of you folks out there whose kids took the AP lit exam this year, I promise that those essays we read the last day had a little extra sparkle thanks to Toycona and Kevin.