Milton's Poem, "When I Consider How
my Light is Spent" is centered around the question posed by the narrator
(presumably Milton himself) to God as to how he became blind and how he is to
continue to serve God within a state of blindness. The sonnet presents an internal
dialogue in which the poet attempts to overcome his own personal discouragement
through his faith in God, and ends in a recognition that God will successfully
intervene in times of doubt. The references to blindness serve as a physical
means of illustrating a metaphorical circumstance within the poem: The lack of
ability to “see” (read: have faith in) God. Despite the fact that blindness in
the poem is ostensibly attributed to the speaker himself, it is clear that the
poem is considering the potential disabling affliction which may exist within
the reader as a loss of faith.
The first word of the poem--“When”-- provides
the reader with a feeling of suspense, a lingering question of “considering how
[his] light is spent,” which is not resolved until seventh and eighth line,
when the question that such consideration raises is finally articulated: “Doth
God, exact day-labour, light denied?” Upon reading the first lines the reader is
immediately taken by a sense that something is coming to an end; there seems to
be a tone of sorrow or mourning. The metaphorical use of light is made clear by
the fact that light cannot literally be “spent.” Light presents a way for the
speaker to consider how, and to what extent, he used his sight prior to his blindness.
The alliteration in the second line, “world” and “wide” places, emphasizes the overwhelming
darkness of the world after the speaker’s loss of sight. Milton also makes it
seem as if the entire world has run out of light, rather than growing dark
because of a personal affliction. He therefore universalizes his condition
through alliterative diction.
In the Lines 3-4, “And that one Talent
which is death to hide/ Lodged with me useless,”
Milton
raises concern regarding the use of his “Talent” and makes reference to the
Parable of Talents from the New Testament[1];
talent, in this sense, refers both to the biblical unit of money as well as to
skill. In the narrator’s case (Milton), presumably his intelligence and his
writing of poetry are both his trade and his skill[2]. However,
due to his early blindness, this "talent" is "lodged" or
buried within the speaker in the same manner as the money or talents in the
biblical story.[3]
While the speaker claimed that his money is as useless as money buried in a
desert, he now asserts that, “though my Soul more bent/ To serve therewith my
Maker, and present” (ll.4-5) this uselessness is not a result of his own will.
To the contrary, his soul desire is "bent" for the very purpose to
use his skills in the service of his Maker.
He continues, frightful of the
consequences of his own ability to use his talents and his concerns that God
will scold or "chide" him: “My true account, lest h1e returning chide”(ll.6).
The word "account" here implies both senses of the word record—a
narrative as well as a financial balance sheet. Here the speaker looks onto God
as he is presented in the parable, who might easily cast the poet into a darkness
more fearful than the one created by his physical blindness, in that the poet
can no longer serve God through his writing and therefore is subject to His
punishment. The speaker then wonders whether or not God requires physical work or
"day-labor" from his followers, even when they lack sight: "Doth
God exact day-labor, light denied?” (ll.7) Using the term “exact” here as
demand or charge, refers back to the concern alluded to earlier; that god might
punish him and require him to pay something in return for the labor he has not performed
despite the gift that he has been given.
While traditionally most Italian sonnets
contain a volta or a sharp thematic
turn dividing the two sections, in this case the awkwardness in lines 7-8 is
intentional. The first section is consumed by the speaker’s attempt to
formulate his question, while the second is that of "Patience"
interrupting the speaker. Therefore, the transition mimics the awkwardness of
someone (Patience) ‘preventing that murmur’ (l. 7-9) from the speaker, which
has nonetheless already been articulated in lines 1-6. The relationship between speaker and audience
(in this case, Patience) is intrinsically intimate here, due not only to the speaker’s
interruption, but also because of the intense confessional nature of the first
six lines and the comfort provided by the voice that appears in line 9. These
are not two strangers speaking. The use of Patience as the name of the
respondent evokes Christian undertones in that patience is often seen as a
vehicle for achieving other virtues, such as courage and wisdom. However, Patience
can also be read as the inner voice that provides comfort to his consciousness.
The prediction of the murmur by Patience could have only been made by someone
who knows the speaker well, or is the speaker.
Here "Patience" (or his inner
voice) responds, "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts”
(ll.9-10), implying that God does not require the physical works of men because
He has his own power and the Angels in Heaven to do as He desires. God does not
require anything because in and of himself, God is complete and perfect. Patience
finally disputes the speaker’s concern of punishment: “His [God’s] 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" (ll.11-14). Here, God is
more kingly than he is tyrannical; thus, the God of the parable from whom the
speaker feared punishment is not one with whom the speaker will meet. If God
controls a "state" as large as the entire earth, what need does he
have for the use of everyone’s labor? Those who remain strong and wait through
the trials of their life are rewarded in Heaven and are also serving God. Patience
concludes with vindication of the speaker’s forced passivity due to his
disabling affliction through the claim that there are those whom also serve him
by only standing.
The poet here in the concluding couplet
answers the initial question in regards to God’s treatment of individuals who
do not have the ability to perform day-labor, and further answers the
predicament of those suffering a disabling affliction. Those who “rest” and
“wait” are perhaps just as useful as those who toil needlessly in His service. The
words “rest” and “wait” are emphasized by their juxtaposition with enjambments
throughout patience’s murmur. The enjambment in lines 8-12 is halted in line 13
by a caesura after the word “rest,” at which the reader must pause. The pause
in line 13 emphasizes the last line and foils the reverence for action created
by the enjambment. Milton concludes the poem with the line, "they also
serve who only stand and wait"(ll.14). This becomes a comfort to not only
the speaker but also to the reader. To stand becomes active and therein does
not stand in contrast to the thousand who in lines 12-13 “speed . . . without
rest.”
This end pause after line 13 is symbolic
of a type of physical rest, which the reader receives, and the original speaker
now presumably acknowledges as also an act in service of the lord. The long
awaited rest which the enjambments did not grant since the utterance of the
question by the speaker in line 7 might have been reflective first of the
original speaker’s restlessness at not servicing God, and then patience’s
description of the actions of those in service of God. This allows for the
entire poem to serve as a self-reassurance and a re-discovery of faith through
the active discourse[4] with
Patience that brings both faith and wisdom—and grants the speaker the
subservience to wait. Thus "how [his] light is spent" becomes
symbolic of not only the speaker’s physical blindness but the reader’s
blindness to the symbolic light of god, a light which both the narrator and the
reader learn to await.
[1] In Mathew Chapter
25, the Lord entrusts three of his servants money or "talents.” While two
of the servants use the money to make more money for their master, the third buries
the money. When the Lord returns he is pleased with the first two servants and
provides them with more responsibility; however he is furious with the third
servant whom he exiles to darkness that is equated with death.
[2] Though in line
7, it seems that he is referring only to manual labor; one which is physical in
nature, though this may only be that day-labor can apply to any craft not
necessarily only the physical sort.
[3] The inherent
irony in this is not lost on me, given that despite Milton’s lack of light it
does not prevent Milton from writing this sonnet and therein the act of writing
the sonnet becomes a futile one and its conclusion suffers from a loss of
meaning in that Milton himself is capable of continuing his day labor.
[4] Discourse here intended in the platonic
sense, through a question and answer forum rather than an actual dialogue.
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