On His Blindness By John Milton

When I consider how my light is spent, (a)

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,(b)

And that one Talent which is death to hide (b)

Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent (a)

To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)

My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)

"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" (b)

I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent (a)

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)

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

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)

And post o'er Land and Ocean without rest: (d)

They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)

John Milton was born in London in 1608. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.

‘On his blindness’ is an autobiographical sonnet written in 1673 when he suffered complete blindness. 

In this sonnet he is trying to explain the struggle he went through after his loss of sight. 

The poem is considered to be a sonnet of 14 lines written in the ‘Petrarchan’ rhyme scheme. Its rhyming scheme is ABBA, ABBA, CDE and CDE. Though the subject matter departs from that of a Petrarchan poems which mainly is about ‘love’ but still this sonnet contains many spiritual implication which makes it a Petrarchan. This form is also called an Italian sonnet. The first eight lines is octave where we usually see the introduction of the main theme or questions and in the last six lines ‘sestet’ we see the questions being answered and this is how usually a sonnet is. 

In the first eight lines of the sonnet Milton asks God the reason for his blindness and the dilemma he is facing to serve him. And in the next six lines Milton’s inner self clears all his confusion. 

When I consider how my light is spent,

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

In the first line Milton says that all his light has been spent that means that now that he is blind at the age of 42 he thinks his ‘light years’ those years where he had vision he could see has already been spent and now he lives in a dark world. Because of his blindness Milton thinks the world has become dark and wide.

And that one Talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, […]

The word talent here refers to the poet’s skills that God has given him now he thinks its of no use. Here the word Talent has a biblical reference to it. As a biblical scholar Milton was familiar with the texts of the bible and chose to refer a short story, The Parable of Talents from Matthew 25.  In this story a master gives his 3 servants 3 bags of talent also know as money and leaves for his trip two of the servants use the money and gain more but the third one just buries the money and does nothing. When the master returns the two servants who earned more money gives them to the master and the master appreciates them for their skills but when the third one returns the money as it is the master gets angry and exiles the servant. This story also shows that the 3rd servant buried his talent in death as he didn’t even attempt to use it. So here Milton thinks his talent of reading and writing will also go in vain as he could never use it again. 

[…] though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

Through the line ‘Soul is bent’ Milton is trying to convey, now that his talent is dead he feels what his soul yearns to do, that is to sever God is not possible. But still he wants to sever his master that is God because again here the reference is to the story Matthew 25 like how in the story after returning the master is disappointed with the 3rd servant who had done nothing with the money the master had given, likewise when God himself comes and asks Milton what has he done for him with his talent he is scared to give the same answer as the servant had given in the story since God has true accounts of all so he afraid that God would chide or scold him for doing nothing with his talent.

"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"

I fondly ask. […]

 Finally, after thinking all the possibilities Milton now wonders does God really ask people who are blind to do something for him. Doesn’t he know how difficult it is for people with no light to do any kind of labor in the day light? Then Milton calls himself a fool to ask this question .

[…] But patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need

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

Now patience comes to the poets rescue. Here Patience is personified as someone who talks to the poet by putting some sense to him. Patience murmurs and tells him that God doesn’t need anything from him nor does He need any kind of Gifts from anyone.

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. […]

‘Yoke’ means a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and is attached to plough or pull the cart. So here in this line Patience again in telling Milton that God needs nothing from anyone, all you have to do is just bear his mild yoke (mind you, the yoke is not heavy or hard it is mild which one can bear easily) and follow him as the animals do and leave everything to God as he’ll take care thats how one could server 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."

Patience continues saying His state is Kingly meaning God is king not a master who expects things to be done by their servants. He has thousands of bidding in the sense work to do things that require his vision. There are people who move from land to ocean without rest to serve him but finally Patience also says that those who are unable to move all over and just wait at one place are also serving God in their own way.

Now Milton is convinced that even though he is blind he can still serve god on his own way ironically Milton became famous after he lost his vision. 

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