On
His Blindness—John Milton
Analysis
Line
1-2
“When I consider how my light has spent”
Ere half my days, in this dark world and
wide,”
The speaker thinks that all of his light is used up
("spent") before even half his age is over. Now he lives in a world that is
both "dark and wide." because he is a man without light,
The first word of the poem, "When," gives
us an idea of the structure of a conditional sentence. Such as "When I
broke the glass, I had to find something to sweep it up."
But the
second part of this conditional sentence doesn't come until lines 7 and 8.
Most readers believe that the poem is clearly about
Milton's blindness, but the poem never directly refers to blindness or even
vision. Instead, we think that "light" is a metaphor for vision.
The metaphor is complicated. The speaker says that
his light can be "spent," and this word suggests that he is thinking
of something like an oil lamp. 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.
The word "spent" also makes us think of
money. Milton is reflecting on how he has used or "spent" his vision,
now that it is gone.
The word "ere" means "before." Milton
went completely blind at the age of 42.How does Milton know that he became
blind before his life was halfway over? Actually, Milton guesses roughly how
long he will live.
Finally, calling the world "dark and
wide" makes it sound like a fearful place, Interestingly, Milton makes it
seem as if the world has run out of light, rather than growing dark because of his
blindness.
Lines
3-4
“And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodge
with me…. [..]
Here, the key word is "talent." You
probably read "talent" and think of skills like swimming or singing
etc. But there's a double meaning. It is
an allusion taken from the history of Bible . In the ancient world, a
"talent" was also a unit or weight by which money was measured, just as a "pound" is a unit
of both weight and currency.
You can read “Matthew 25”, in The Gospel of Mathews. There is story of
"The Parable of Talents."
Here is brief summary of "The Parable of
Talents." A lord gives three of his servants some money
("talents") to hold on to when he leaves for a trip. Two of the
servants use the money to gain more money for their master. (In present
language, we know this usage of money as 'investment.') But the third servant
just buries the money, When the lord returns, he is happy with the first two
servants and gives them more responsibilities (award), but furious with the third servant. He exiles
the third servant into the "darkness," which is now similar to the
"death."
When Milton says that talent is "death to
hide," he is referring to the money in the Biblical story and also to his
own "talent," and his talent
is a skill.
There is no way to tell what specific talent he
means, but our guess would be his intelligence and his writing and reading
skills. This "talent" is "lodged" or buried within the
speaker just like the money in the story. It cannot be used to make greater
profit.
Lines 4-6
“[…] though my soul more bent
To
serve therewith, my Maker and present
My true
account, leat he returning chide”
The speaker tells us that his talent is as useless
as money buried in the desert, but now he says that his unwillingness or lack
of desire is not responsible for this uselessness of his skill (talent). Rather,
his soul desires (is "bent") to use his skills in the service of his
"Maker," God.
He thinks that when he is faced with God, he wants
to have a record of accomplishment to show to God.
God is being compared with the lord from the
"Parable of the Talents" in Matthew 25. When God "returns"
to him like the master in the parable, the speaker wants to show to his muster
that he has used his talents profitably.
The word "account" here means both"
story" and "a record of activities with money."
If the speaker turns out to have wasted his
profits, he worries that God will scold or "chide" him. And if God is
anything like the lord from the parable, the speaker could get cast into darkness
even more fearful than the suffering of his blindness.
Lines
7-8
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I
foundly ask --- […]
It has taken the speaker six lines to get through
the part of the sentence that begins "When." Now he goes on to say
what happens "when" he thinks about all things he has described
above. He asks whether God demands (exact) that people do hard, physical work,
or "day-labour," when they
don't have any light.
The speaker doesn't have any light because he's
blind, but in Milton's metaphor he compares this condition to having to do work
at night that you would normally do during the day – like, say, building a
house or plowing a field.
The word "exact" means something like
"charge," "claim," or "demand." For example ,You
can "exact" 500 taka as your
fees. So the speaker wants to know if God demands work as a kind of payment
that is due to Him.
The first section of the poem is completed by the
words "I fondly ask." The word "fondly" means
"foolishly," not "lovingly." The speaker accuses himself of
being a idiot for even thinking this question.
Fortunately, "patience" steps in to
prevent his foolishness. More on that in the next section.
Lines 8-10
[…] but patience, to prevent
That
murmur, soon replies, “God does not need
Either
man’s work or his own gift; who best
Patience is personified as someone who can talk to
the speaker. Patience is often personified in Christian art because of its role
in helping one to achieve important virtues like courage and wisdom.
The speaker is about to "murmur" his
foolish question about whether God would be so cruel as to make impossible
demands of work, but then his patience stops him by the answers. The rest of
the poem is the reply made by patience.
First, a patience point out that God does
not need anything. God is complete and perfect. He doesn't need work
or talents ("gifts") of any kind.
Line 11
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. […]
Now patience points out its second point. Patience argues that those
people are the best servants of God who allow their fates to be linked with and
controlled by God, as if they were wearing a yoke.
Essentially, this means accepting things as they
come, especially suffering and misfortune.
A "yoke" is a wood frame that is placed
around the necks of farm animals, like ox, cow, so that they can be directed.
Patience doesn't want to make God sound like an
unkind slave driver, so God's yoke is called "mild," or not-that is bad.
Actually It's not a matter how much you get the time on earth to be loyal to
God, it's how you handle your submission to God.
Lines 11-14
[…] 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.
The final point made by patience is that God is
like a king, not a lord, so the "Parable of the Talents" does not
strictly apply.
Lord needs everyone of his servants on his estates
to work for them. A Lord is rich but not so rich that they would keep useless
servant. So A Lord usually doesn’t keep servants who are only for stand around and wait for. On the other
hand, Kings have unlimited resources, especially if they control a
"state" as large as the entire earth.
With His kingly status, God has plenty of worshiper
to do His "bidding" by rushing from place to place, they do things
that require light and vision. It doesn't make a difference whether one more
person fulfills the role or not.
But kings also have people who "wait" on
them, who stand in a state of readiness until their action is needed.
So, we believe that the sentence, "His state
is kingly," is meant to contrast with the "lordly" state of the
master of the Biblical parable in Matthew 25.
Of course, "wait" can also have the
meaning of waiting for something to happen, as in, "I waited for the
bus."
What would the speaker be waiting for? The Second
Coming of Jesus? The end of history? We don't know because the poem only
suggests this meaning so confusingly.
The word "post" here just means "to
travel quickly."
The poem ends with a sign of the speaker's disability
and this disability is forced on him by his blindness.
