Sonnet XIX (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
The Poem
John Milton’s Sonnet XIX, sometimes known as “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,” opens with the narrator reflecting on the fact that he has become blind before half his life has been lived. He is profoundly distressed at the prospect of no longer being able to use his greatest talent, writing, and fears that God might be displeased and punish him for not using it—just as, in a biblical parable, God punished the servant who had not used the money entrusted to him but had hidden it instead. He asks himself whether God could possibly expect the same service...
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