English Literature / Unit 9 ENL 0804 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Sonnets: "When I Consider"
Captions available
The idea
Milton's sonnet "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" laments a talent made useless by blindness. Patience answers that God needs no man's work, and the sonnet ends, "They also serve who only stand and wait." The title "On His Blindness" came from a later editor.
In practice
A blind poet's question, Patience's answer.
Where people slip
Most scholars date it to sixteen fifty-five.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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