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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.
The best Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent (On his blindness) study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Analysis of When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
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- About John Milton
Milton’s speaker is faced with the impossibility of continuing his works. Works that are often considered to be the same as Milton’s, types of writing, or not serving God due to his blindness. He cannot continue as he had been, and he asks and receives an answer to his inner query.
Milton’s themes in ‘When I Consider How My Light Is Spent’ are quite evident from the beginning. They include the future and fear about the future, God/religion, and writing/one’s career. Milton speaks passionately throughout this piece about his newfound disability. He knows he’s going blind and worries endlessly about what that means for his futu...
‘When I Consider How My Light Is Spent’ by John Milton is a fourteen-line, traditional Miltonic sonnet. This means that the fourteen lines follow a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBACDECDE and conform to iambic pentameter. Readers familiar with sonnet forms will likely notice similarities between this format and the Petrarchan and Shakespearean Sonnet. It is...
Milton makes use of several literary devices in ‘When I Consider How My Light Is Spent.’ These include but are not limited to, examples of alliteration, caesurae, and enjambment. The first of these, alliteration, is a kind of repetitionconcerned with the use and reuse of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “wo...
Lines 1-2
The poem begins with the speaker’s consideration of how he has spent the years of his life, represented as his “light.” This light and being a metaphorfor life are also a literal representation of Milton’s life days in which he could see. The second line expands on that, explaining that before even half of the speaker’s life had passed, he is forced to live in a world that is “dark… and wide.” Since Milton went blind at 42, he’d had the opportunity to use his writing skills, his “talents” in...
Lines 3-6
Milton speaks of his “talent,” this talent, his skills with words and love for writing, was his entire life. His livelihood and self-worth depended on it. This word “talent” is the most important in understanding these lines. As a biblical scholar, Milton was familiar with the texts of the bible and chose to reference The Parable of Talents from Matthew 25 here. When Milton refers to the talent, he relates the loss of his ability to read and write to the servant in Matthew 25 who buries the m...
Lines 7-8
At this point, Milton is finishing the sentence that he began at the beginning of the poem with the word, “When.” In short, he asks, “does God require those without light to labor?” He wants to know whether when he cannot continue his work due to his blindness, will God still require work of him.
Readers who enjoyed this poem should also consider looking into some of Milton’s other best-known works. These include‘How Soon Hath Time’ and‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.’ The latter, ‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,’ is also known as Nativity Ode. It was written in 1629 when Milton was 29 years old. It explores themes that include co...
John Miltonwas born on December 9, 1608, in London, England. He came from a middle-class family and went to school at Christ’s College Cambridge, where he originally intended to enter the clergy. After leaving university, he changed his plan and spent the next years studying independently for a career as a poet. During the years of the English Civi...
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“Light denied” in this context means blindness. Notice that there is an undercurrent of blame in this metaphor. “Denied” suggests that someone took his sight. This reveals both the speaker’s anger over losing his sight and his inability to express this anger at God.
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 ...
'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...
The light is "spent" when the oil in the lamp runs out. To make a contemporary comparison, it would be like someone comparing his vision to a flashlight that runs out of batteries before it is supposed to. Milton is suggesting that he got a bad deal. The word "spent" also makes us think of money.
