When I Consider How My
Light is Spent.
John Milton
About the Poet:
‘When I Consider How My Light Is Spent’ is a sonnet written by the poet
John Milton (1608-74) who was an educated English poet.
The poem is about the poet’s blindness: he began to go blind in the early
1650s, in his early forties, and this sonnet is his response to his loss of
sight and the implications it has for his life.
It is thought he began to go blind in 1651; he wrote this poem about a
year later.
SONNET
oHAS 14 LINES
oNORMALLY HAS 10 SYLLABLES PER
LINE
When I Consider How My
Light is Spent
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
5
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
10
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.’
14
Summary
Milton laments that he is losing
his sight when he is barely
halfway through life, with much of
his important work still to be done.
How can he complete his work,
which God has given him the
talent to do, and which God
expects him to complete, if he is
deprived of his sight?
He asks the question to himself,
whether God expects him to work
even when he has gone completely
blind? Patiently, he answers
himself: God does not require work
or gifts from mankind, because
God is a king.
CONTINUATION
OF SUMMARY
• There are thousands of people travelling all
over the world, who can work and who work
hard serving God; but those who merely stand
and wait patiently (instead of running about
actively serving in other ways) also serve God
just as well as those who go out into the world
and work hard to please him through their
great deeds.
• (The reference to ‘Talent’ is an allusion to a
parable from the Gospel of Mark.)
• “…. 14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man
travelling into a far country, who called his own
servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
• 15 And unto one he gave five talents, to
another two, and to another one; to every man
according to his several ability; and
straightway took his journey.
• 16 Then he that had received the five talents
went and traded with the same, and made
them other five talents…”
“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…”
• The poet expresses how he is
losing his “light”, his eyesight
before half his life is over.
• The light he is referring to could
be a metaphor for the poet’s life or
his eyesight when he still had it.
• “world…wide” = alliteration
• The talent is his skill for words
and writing, he depends on this
talent for his self-worth.
•
In these lines, the poet says that God has given
him the talent of poetic composition, and if he
cannot produce something worthwhile using that
talent, he deserves to die.
•
However, his talent has been rendered useless by
losing his eyesight. Even so, he wishes to serve
God by using his talent. He is writing this poem
so that God does not become angry at him and
think that he is wasting the talent that has been
given to him.
•
The poet’s “true account” refers to both his
records in writing and money (parable).
•
The common noun maker has been personified
and given a Capital letter to emphasize the
greatness and superiority of his maker (God).
“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…”
• In these lines the poet wants to/ is tempted
to ask God a question directly.
• He wants to ask God whether he would be
cruel enough to expect something
productive from a blind man as the price
for providing him with the talent that has
helped him earn his bread and butter thus
far. He wonders if those without light are
still able to do labour.
• However, the poet is a patient man,
therefore he stops himself from asking the
question. Instead, he answers the question
himself = rhetorical question (line 9=
change in tone)
• His patience (personified) tells him that
God does not ask for anything from a man.
He does not ask for his gifts to be returned,
nor does he expect every man to make use
of those gifts. The ones who want to serve
God in the best way possible only accept
the hand they have been dealt gracefully
and without bitterness.
• Mild yoke= referring to being restrained or
set back by his blindness which he has to
overcome and “take with a pinch of salt”.
“Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
• The element of patience allows offers the poet some advice to deal
with the supposedly harsh ordeal of his going blind. His patience
tells him that God is akin to a king with many kingdoms under his
dominion and countless subjects to do as he asks. There are similarly
thousands of men on earth who follow God’s every instruction to the
letter and who hurry over lands and seas without a moment of rest to
fulfill the duties allotted to them. However, these are not the only
people who serve God. There are also others who merely stand and
wait for God to decide how their lives will go. Their superior service
to God is to accept whatever trial God puts on their path and deal
with such trials with courage and resilience. These people also serve
God to the best of their ability, and God loves everyone equally.
Structure
• ‘When I Consider How My
Light Is Spent’ is
a Petrarchan or Italian
sonnet rhymed
abbaabbacdecde; as with
traditional Petrarchan
sonnets, we can divide the
poem up roughly into an
octave or eight-line unit
(rhymed abba abba) and a
sestet or six-line unit
(rhymed cde cde).
• Run on lines- enjambment