Summary of On His Blindness

John Milton’s poem “On His Blindness” is a well known autobiographical sonnet. It is written in the style of Petrarchan sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets consist of 14 lines: the first 8 lines (octave) introduce a problem and the remaining 6 lines (sestet) find a solution. The poem differs from the Petrarchan sonnet in its theme and construction. Generally Petrarchan sonnets deal with love where as this poem deals with spiritual/ physical pain of the writer. The poem is written in the first person narration, where the poet laments about his loss of sight. Milton lost his eyesight in 1652 when he was 44 years old. He wrote this poem in 1655 when he completely lost his eye sight.
          The poem begins with a subordinate class ‘When’ which leaves the readers in suspense.  The poet talks about his blindness. He has become blind in the middle of his life. He has to live in the dark and wide world for the rest of his life. He feels that God has gifted him with the greatest talent: writing poetry. He expresses his desire to serve God by using the ability which God has given him. Unfortunately he is unable to fulfill his wish to write because of his blindness. Due to the pain of being blind, Milton starts the poem in bitter and hard tone.
          Milton felt that God might scold him for not using his talents. Milton asked whether God needs man’s service. He foolishly questioned, If God wants man to serve him, why did God take away the light from his eyes? He wonders whether he will be able to produce great works being blind.
          As Milton laments about his blindness and God’s criticism, Patience, a guardian Angel, arrives with the reply that God never need man’s service. Whoever is ready to bear the burden of life will serve the God well. God has servants all over the world who are all the time serving him over the land and the ocean without any rest. The poet realises the fact that God does not need man’s service, and does not take away the talents He has given to man. He is the supreme power and has countless servants. The people who accept all the struggles of life without questioning God serve him the most. Thus the poem ends with a positive note. The Octave of the poem starts with the pain and the problem of blindness. The Sestet concludes with a positive note that accepting the entire struggle without lamenting is serving God. The poem describes Milton’s philosophy of life. This is his pure experience of physical life. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summary of The Guide

Image
Key Words  ( Transformation,Redemption,Gender, Feminism,Tradition vs. Modernity, Greed, Materialism, Attraction and Sexuality ) Summary    'The Guide' is one of the best narrative novels written by R K Narayan.He was an identical novelist of India.This novel is a mirror of modern Indian society, the protagonist and occasional narrator of R.K.Narayan’s The Guide. Raju is a character whose entire life is  upon the sins of hypocrisy and dissimulation. He shows multiple careers including his work as a tourist guide in his hometown of Malgudi, southern part of India.His other career as a “Dance Manager” for Rosie. (The seductive dancer he begins an affair with when she visits Malgudi with her husband, Marco). His final reincarnation as a holy man in a small village in India; premised deceptions and lies. The life  of Raju dramatizes the way in which Raju’s propensity for deceit leads him into trouble. Openly, Narayan suggests us through his potential ex
Read more

Transformation of Indian Culture

           Key words   [ Introduction of culture, transformation of culture, socialization, castisim, individualism, impact of materialism, detoreation of morality and conclusion ] As we all know that culture is the backbone of any society in the world. Each society has its own culture in the different parts of the world that is followed by the people of that particular area. It is a simple word in listening and speaking but I mean that it has very large area of meaning but not so easy to define and discuss without vision of clear society.I like to call a statement said by MK Gandhi in his culture and civilization.He said that it is a mode of conduct.  It is that kind of thing in which the society is running with its own way.  In my area of knowledge regarding culture of our society, culture is the vital part of any society, so my question is that first of all,we must be familiar with society ?Another question of mine, what it is society? How we can unde
Read more

Shakespeare as a great dramatist as well as a great poet.

Image
               As we know that Shakespeare is par excellence in English literature. He fortunately gets his birth in April 1564 with innumerable thoughts and unfortunately he disappears in the same month of 1616.He elevates inner feelings of human beings. It is true that Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist of the world but his sonnets retain their timeless appeal because poet's gradual development as well as artist in terms of his intuitive awareness of paradoxes in human nature,  yet part of the enduring charm of their lyrical poems lies in the poets craftsmanship.He defies and modifies elevated thoughts and feelings for dramas as well as poems.His sonnets after Invariable problems; reflect wide variety of poets moods and feelings arranging from Jubilication to Cynism and from a desire to celebrate friendship and true love to an awareness of betrayal and infatuation even from the point of address for invocation of his sonnets are varied in tone,moods and expression
Read more