[106] On His Blindness
Rectifying a serious omission in the list of covered poets...
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
Lodg'd 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."
-- John Milton
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Milton is not really one of my favourite poets, but this in no way detracts
from his obvious merits. The poem above is one of his most famous[1], and
certainly one of the more famous sonnets around. Like most of Milton's
poetry, it is explicitly religious; this does, I think, give it a slightly
anachronistic feel today, but it was far from uncommon in his time. Like a
number of famous poems, most of this one's impact lies in its last line,
which provides a beautiful counterpoint to the rest of the poem, and which
is far more famous than the sonnet itself.
[1] always excepting 'Paradise Lost'
m.
Notes:
Form: sonnet: abbaabbacdecde
1. The date of composition is uncertain, Milton's blindness, to which this
is the first reference in his poetry, became virtually complete in 1652,
but if the arrangement of his sonnets is (as it elsewhere appears to be)
chronological, the date must be, like that of Sonnet XVIII, 1655. First
printed in Poems, 1673.
light: power of vision, to be taken in conjunction with "this dark
world.'' In a letter of 1654 Milton refers to a very faint
susceptibility to light still remaining to him.
2. Ere half my days: we must not expect mathematical accuracy. But if we
remember that Milton is speaking about his career in God's service, take
its beginning in the avowed dedication to that service in Sonnet VII
(1632), and assume the scriptural life-span of three score years and ten
(which would mean life till 1678), 1652 falls before, and even 1655 does
not extend beyond, the half-way mark of Milton's expected career of
service.
3-6. The allusion is to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30);
death, like the outer darkness into which the unprofitable servant was
cast, stands for the utmost in punishment; the Talent was a measure of
weight and hence of value; there is here, of course, a play on the word
in its modern sense of mental gift or endowment, in Milton's case his
gift of poetry.
8. fondly: foolishly.
-- from <http://library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/rp/authors/milton.html>
Biography and Assessment
Milton's sonnets (he only wrote a few, but they are so well-known that his
variation is called the Miltonic sonnet) retain the original rhyme scheme
of the Petrarchian or Italian sonnet, but completely get rid of the
"volte", or change or perspective between the octet and sestet. The result
is that the 14-line stanza becomes a monolith. An astounding thing is that
it turns out to be just the right length, even for wide-minded (and
occasionally long-winded) Milton.
-- Bob Blair
The major sonnets have much poetical as well as autobiographical interest,
and as a group they illustrate (with "Lycidas") both in texture and rhythm
the beginnings of the grand style (i.e., a literary style marked by a
sustained and lofty dignity and sublimity) that was to have full scope in
Paradise Lost. One is less conscious of sonnet structure and of rhymes
than of a single massive unit that approaches a paragraph of Milton's
blank verse.
-- EB
Milton, John
b. Dec. 9, 1608, London, Eng.
d. Nov. 8, 1674, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire
one of the greatest poets of the English language. He also was a noted
historian, scholar, pamphleteer, and civil servant for the
Parliamentarians and the Puritan Commonwealth.
Milton ranks second only to Shakespeare among English poets; his writings
and his influence are an important part of the history of English
literature, culture, and libertarian thought. He is best known for
Paradise Lost, which is generally regarded as the greatest epic poem in
the English language. Milton's prose works, however, are also important as
a valuable interpretation of the Puritan revolution, and they have their
place in modern histories of political and religious thought.
-- EB
A more complete biogaphy may be found at
<http://www.gale.com/gale/poetry/poetset.html>
And since no biography of Milton would be compelete without a short note on
Paradise Lost:
By 1650 Milton had given up the idea of composing a British epic. Instead
he chose what was considered the most momentous event, next to the life
and death of Christ, in the world's history--the fall of mankind from
grace. Paradise Lost is an epic poem written in blank verse--i.e.,
unrhymed iambic pentameter verse. It tells the story of Satan's rebellion
against God and his expulsion from heaven and the subsequent temptation
and expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
By Milton's time the Fall of Man had already received innumerable
literary treatments, narrative and dramatic, so that the simple tale in
Genesis and the more shadowy role of Satan in heaven, earth, and hell
had acquired a good deal of interpretative and concrete embellishment.
So the main motives and events of Paradise Lost had abundant literary
precedent, though they were handled with powerful originality; Milton,
like a Greek dramatist, was reworking a story familiar in outline to his
audience. His story, moreover, gave him the advantage of immemorial
belief and association in the minds of his earlier readers. This
advantage no longer operates in the same way--although, for modern
readers, the fable still possesses at least the immemorial and universal
import of archetypal myth.
-- EB
From: Bill.Mascioli@
From: "Rosemary Kerr" <rosemary@>
As someone who is writing poems on faith I find the suggestion that
religious poetry is anachronistic, as though spiritual questions had
lost their relevance. Let me conclude with this
Love Song
A sonnet
In sixty years I've learned love can't be spoken,
The words that tell it drift deceptively
Like scent of roses heavy in the garden,
Avoiding questions bent on what might be.
You gone, an ocean and a continent between,
Something returns from everything we've seen
To spin a new creation that's been won
Against the pain and grief we've brooded on.
Something wild and strange is happening
As lives untangle, yielding freedom now
From tactical defense and bargaining.
Rather, let's sing again life's song, and so
A new world is begun, and we are part of it
With God - who spins the thread - and everyone.
From: "cowan" <cowan@>
Although Milton's religiousity overrides much of the discussion of his
poetry, I find that the universality of his placement in the world
speaks much more clearly than his definition of the church. Within this
context we discover the philosophies that yokes are defined by the
wearer as heavy or light, and more importantly the concept that those
who wait to serve (even within the definition that at this point the
service would be less than adequate) are equal to the greatest of all
workers. Does it bother anyone that such a devote Christian should
spend his introduction to the epic of man with a prayer to the Greek
muse to guide his hand?
Geo.
From: "Joel" <tirian@>
I feel that 'Geo' rather mis-understands the point of this poem. It is
not about the concept that those who "wait to serve" are equal to the
'greatest workers' - rather that the waiting itself is service. This is
no small point, for the whole meaning of the poem centres around it!
See line 9-10 "God doth not need .. man's work .. who best bear his mild
yoke, they serve him best". Milton is rejoicing in the fact that there
is no such thing as a 'greatest worker' as Geo puts it - there are only
those who serve God, and those who do not. And if God asks that he
'stand and wait' then his service is complete doing just that.