For this week’s blog post I’m choosing to focus on the poem When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton. With some background research I determined that Milton had gone blind before writing this poem which was key to my understanding of it and the central theme. I interpreted this poem to be Milton grappling with his loss of sight and how this affects his ability to serve god. Milton opens the poem considering how his “light is spent”. To me in this poem light is an example of conceit where the author compares his ability to see to light. Thus, when he thinks about how his “light is spent” and his time in “this dark world” Milton is pondering his loss of sight and transition into life as a blind man. One thing I noticed within this poem is that Milton’s diction helps to communicate the emotions he experiences with his loss of sight. I found the word “lodged” in line 4 to be particularly powerful as it creates this feeling of being stuck. Through his word choice Milton communicates to the reader how he feels stuck with this now useless skill of vision that is lodged within him and disruptive.

Milton continues on in the poem discussing how he wants to “serve” his “maker”, which I interpreted to be god, but wonders if he even can or is supposed to with his loss of sight. Something that I noticed that was unique in this poem was the capitalization of certain words in the middle of lines. For example Milton capitalizes the words “Soul”, “Maker”, and describes god as “Kingly”. I noticed that all of these words had a spiritual connection, so by capitalizing them Milton places emphasis on his connection to god and makes religion a central theme within the poem. Within the poem I particularly love the line “But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, ‘God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts’”. I interpreted the “murmur” that is mentioned to be the lines of poetry before this line which are Milton’s train of thought. This line makes me think that this poem is Milton thinking out loud and vocalizing his internal conflict. In the end Milton comes to the conclusion that “man’s work” and “gifts” are not what god deems important, rather it is those who listen and serve him that he appreciates.

I found that this poem carries strong themes of faith, identity, and salvation which Milton communicates particularly well through his diction and use of conceit.