Sonnet 19: On my Blindness/ When I consider how my light is spent BY JOHN MILTON

Sonnet 19: On my Blindness/

When I consider how my light is spent

BY John milton

When I consider how my light is spent,

   Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,

   And that one Talent which is death to hide

   Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

   My true account, lest he returning chide;

   “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need

   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best

   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:

   They also serve who only stand and wait.”

 

Sonnet 19/ On his Blindness/ “When I consider how my light is spent”

·      Best known sonnet by John Milton

·      “ they also serve who only stand and wait”

·      published in Milton’s 1673 poems

·      Petrarchan form- ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

·      LIGHT ( Metaphor/ conceit) refers to

i)    Speaker’s life span

ii)  Sight

iii)         Intellectual illumination

·      Autobiographical sonnet- meditates on his loss of sight

·      Concerns the universal desire to discover and develop one’s talents

·      The poet suggests that each of us is given one or several talents which one is obliged to identify utilize and develop throughout our lives or else experience disappointment failure or frustration

·      Some people simply need to serve him by waiting

·      It is acceptable to wait for divine inspiration

Ø The poet explores his experience with blindness and religious faith

Ø Usually Petrarchan sonnets focus on love and romance but Milton subverts this in order to explore his relationship with God

Ø Milton fears that his blindness will prevent him from doing God’s wok

SUMMARY

v Milton opens the sonnet with “when” a subordinat clause that introduces the main idea

v The speaker feels that his light is spent in seveal senses of the word light

v Milton refers to “one talent” which is writing . Milton fears that he too will be condemned for failing to use his talent

v The 3^rd line refers the Biblical parable of the talents (Mathew 25: 14-30) which speaks of bad servant neglects his master’s talent instead of using it, is cast into darkness. The line denotes Milton’s talent as a writer

v 4-6: the poet feels that he is useless now that he is losing his eyesight. It is frustrating to want to serve God with his writing but he feels sad to feel that his talent will be wasted as he becomes blind

v 7-8: Milton uses grumbling tone to show his attitude as foolish. He asks if God wants just day work or smaller lesser tasks since Milton’s blindness denies him his light

v 9-10: “bear his mild yoke” refers to people who are most obedient to God’s will. The image of Yoke is also Biblical. A yoke was a kind of harness put on oxen but in Mathew 11: 29-30 it is an image for God’s will

v “His state is kingly” At God’s bidding thousands of people and by angelic messengers work all rough the world all the time. This line implies a sort of constant worldwide motion of service to God’s commands

v There is more than one way of serving God and patience tells the poet that even his waiting / apparent inaction caused by blindness is a kind of service

BIBLCAL IMAGES

LIGHT

     Gospel of John(John 9: 1-7)- Jesus miraculously cures a beggar’s blindness

WORK

     “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work”

DUTY

     The parable of the talents from the Gospel f Mathew

Volta takes place in line 9- where patience replies to the poet’s queries

     Milton is known as one of the very greatest and most influential English poets ranking with Chaucer ad Shakespeare. He wrote poetry and prose. His most influential work is Paradise Lost. Lord Macauley in Critical Historical and Miscellaneous Essays “ traces of peculiar characters of Milton may be found in all is work but t is most strongly displayed in the sonnets.

QUESTIONS

1)  How does Milton hope to serve God?

2)  What is the central idea of the poem

3)  What does “they also serve who only stand and wait” mean?

4)  Why does the poet call the talent useless in the sonnet?

5)  What is the cause of Milton’s lament in his sonnet?

6)  Explain day-labour, mild yoke and stand and wait

7)  How does the poet justify the ways of God too men in the sonnet?

8)  What moral does the sonnet convey?

9)  What is the murmur that patience prevents Milton from making in the poem?

10)      Who gave the poem the title “On his Blindness”?

Answer: Thomas Newton, an eighteenth century cleric