On His Blindness, by John Milton (written c. 1655)

When I consider how my light is spentEre half my days in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide;“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”I fondly ask. But Patience to preventThat murmur, soon replies: “God doth not needEither man’s work or his own gifts; who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs kingly. Thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o’er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.”

First published in Milton’s Poems (1673), the year before he died.

Form

Rhythm / Meter:Underlying structure/ framework: iambic pentameter

Gk. iamb: iaptein, to attack, to throw; foot = de DUM (e.g. good BYE)Gk. Pentameter: five measuresTherefore: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM

The sonnet formThis is a highly stylised way of presenting and developing an ‘argument’ in verse form. The proposition plus the resolution is called the argument.

Petrarchan sonnetOriginally from C13th Italy; troubadours’ chivalrous love songs. Dante wrote sonnets, as did Michelangelo. Petrarch’s were so famous that we call C13th sonnets Petrarchan sonnets. Form: 14 lines = 1. octave (two quatrains): proposition (problem/question); 2. Sestet (two tercets): resolution. The ninth line is usually a volta, a turnaround, indicating the move from proposition to resolution. The rhyme scheme was usually abba, abba, cde, cde.