When I Consider How My Light Is Spent Meaning

Likely written in the mid 1650s after milton lost his eye sight the poem reflects on the physical and spiritual challenges the speaker faces as a blind person.

When i consider how my light is spent meaning. When i consider how my light is spent is a petrarchan or italian sonnet rhymed abbaabbacdecde. The sonnet form has often been used to stage an argument or debate not between two people but between two different points of view which are vying to be heard within the poet s or speaker s own mind. Sonnet 19 more commonly called when i consider how my light is spent is a poem by the english poet john milton. The speaker says that his light can be spent and this word suggests that he is thinking of something like an oil lamp.

The last three lines are particularly well known. Composed sometime between 1652 and 1655 john milton s sonnet 19 when i consider how my light is spent grapples with the subject of the poet s blindness later in life as well as his changing relationship with god. They conclude with they also serve who only stand and wait which is much quoted though rarely in context. Explain meaning of when i consider how my light is spent.

The light is spent when the oil in the lamp runs out. Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven 500 questions 639 answers 133 best answers 1 228 points view profile. From wikipedia the free encyclopedia when i consider how my light is spent is one of the best known of the sonnets of john milton 1608 1674.