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    On His Blindness

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    Star Kings
    The sonnet reflects Milton's personal sorrow and faith after losing his eyesight in 1652 at a young age. In the first part, he complains of his blindness cutting his life short and preventing him from using his writing talent to serve God. In the second part, patience consoles him that God requires not man's services but his obedience. Milton resigns himself to God's will, finding relief in using his talent to praise God. He asserts his unshakable faith that truly serving God is to patiently accept his will.

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    On His Blindness

    Uploaded by

    Star Kings
    641 views2 pages
    The sonnet reflects Milton's personal sorrow and faith after losing his eyesight in 1652 at a young age. In the first part, he complains of his blindness cutting his life short and preventing him from using his writing talent to serve God. In the second part, patience consoles him that God requires not man's services but his obedience. Milton resigns himself to God's will, finding relief in using his talent to praise God. He asserts his unshakable faith that truly serving God is to patiently accept his will.

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    On his blindness

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    The sonnet reflects Milton's personal sorrow and faith after losing his eyesight in 1652 at a young age. In the first part, he complains of his blindness cutting his life short and preventing him from using his writing talent to serve God. In the second part, patience consoles him that God requires not man's services but his obedience. Milton resigns himself to God's will, finding relief in using his talent to praise God. He asserts his unshakable faith that truly serving God is to patiently accept his will.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    641 views2 pages

    On His Blindness

    Uploaded by

    Star Kings
    The sonnet reflects Milton's personal sorrow and faith after losing his eyesight in 1652 at a young age. In the first part, he complains of his blindness cutting his life short and preventing him from using his writing talent to serve God. In the second part, patience consoles him that God requires not man's services but his obedience. Milton resigns himself to God's will, finding relief in using his talent to praise God. He asserts his unshakable faith that truly serving God is to patiently accept his will.

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    On His Blindness

    - John Milton
    Introduction
    It is one of the finest Sonnets of John Milton. It reflects the personal sorrow and
    faith of the poet. In 1652, when blindness overtook him, he felt great pain due to it.
    Thus, it is a moving and heart-rending personal sonnet. It presents his anguish at the
    early blindness, his sense of mission in life and his unshakable faith in God and religion.

    John Milton was the second great poet of England. He stands next only to
    Shakespeare. He wrote many sublime and serious poems. He regarded the vocation of
    the poet, lofty and exalted. Almost all his works, epics, sonnets or tragedies, reflect his
    personal experiences of his life. This Sonnet has pleasing rhyme scheme. It is
    composed in the ‘petrarchan’ form with two sections ‘octave’ and ‘sestet’. In ‘octave’ –
    first 8 lines, the poet’s problem of loosing eye sight, pain and anger are presented, while
    in sestet, the anger and complain are resolved. Here the poet leaves the sorrow and
    accepts God’s will.

    His Sorrow over Blindness


    In the beginning, the poet complains that he has become blind before, “half of his
    life has passed.” At such an early age of life, the blindness has made him bitter and
    angry. He says painfully that ‘the world appears to him, dark and gloomy.’ He feels sad
    when he thinks that his “one talent”- the gift of writing poetry is lying useless before
    him. In this painful state, he cannot serve God by the use of his talent. Thus, the sonnet
    opens with the complaint as his only talent is ‘lodg’d with’ him useless. In this state, he
    asks himself…”whether God expects work from a Man who had lost eye-sight?” The
    question shows the poet’s feelings of despair. He feels bad for his misfortune and
    doubts about God’s ways to man.

    His Unshakable Faith in God


    In such moments of doubts, patience comes to console him. It consoles the poet
    that God did not require the return of his gifts. God’s heart is kind and merciful. God has
    no need of Man’s services. He has thousands of angles at ‘His command’ to render
    their service to God. Those persons, who bear patiently the sufferings and sorrows of
    life, could be good servants of Him. And those who pray silently and wait for His mercy
    are also his real devotees. These feelings bring relief to his aggrieved heart. He calmly
    resigns himself to the will of God. Now, he wishes to make the best use of the poetic
    gift, by composing poems in praise of God.

    Conclusion:
    In the last lines, he asserts his ‘firm faith; in God and religion’. He consoles
    himself with the thought that ‘they also serve God who ‘stand’ and wait’ and suffer
    patiently. He thinks that man must submit himself completely to the ‘will of God’. The
    best service to God is ‘to stand and wait.’ A true-devotee silently waits for his orders.
    “Who best bear His mild yoke, They serve him best…” Thus, this Sonnet is moving and
    heart-rending personal document. It brings us close to the mind, heart and religious
    character of the blind poet. At the end, we find his unshakable faith in God and religion.

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