Type of Activity: Reading Skill
John Milton’s poem “On His Blindness” is an autobiographical sonnet which meditates on his own loss of sight. The first few lines describes how his world has become totally dark, this particularly concerning because he now wonders how he will serve God, his master. As Milton ponders this question, “Patience,” personified as living person, interjects his thoughts and softly reminds him that God doesn’t need him to do anything. Patience, tells him that the simplest thanks to serve God is accepting the life as God wills.
On His Blindness
John Milton
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
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
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Activity
Answer the following questions:
1.) What does the light in the first line refer to?
2.) What is the talent referred to in the third line of the poem?
3.)What makes Milton say that the talent is lodged useless within him?
4.) Explain the quotation. “God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best.”
5.) What is the moral lesson of the story?
Answer:
1. Milton is reflecting on how he has used or “spent” his vision, now that it is gone.
2.his intelligence and his writing and reading skills, which he had used in service of Oliver Cromwell’s government.
3.The speaker has just told us that his talent is as useless as money buried in the desert, but now he says that his uselessness has nothing to do with a lack of will.
4.He wonders if God demands that people undertake hard, physical work, or “day-labour,” when they don’t have any light.
5.The moral message of Milton’s “On His Blindness” is that God does not truly need the work of human beings or the exercise of their talents. What God wants is for people to “bear his mild yoke,” as those individuals who submit to his will serve him best.
Explanation:
🙂
