Lost in a Dark World: John Milton’s “When I Consider How my Light is Spent” Essay

Being filmdom would be an incredibly hard social occasion to endure, and an so far harder situation to describe to other people. In John Miltons 1652 rime When I Consider How my Light is Spent the author uses imagery, symbols, and extended metaphors to channel his feelings of going blind and how it relates to the serving of his god.In exploring the use of his imagery you must first know that John Milton was blind when he wrote this verse form. All of the imagery apply in his poem is functioning to help the proofreader get a better sense of what it might be like to be blind themselves. The blue(a) world he describes in stage business two is an example of imagery. He uses these words to describe how his new lifetime or world is completely absent-minded of light. Hes almost trying to say that hes not blind, but that the world is just dark. You can see this in line one where he states my light is spent. As you can see Milton uses complicated word spiel throughout the poem, t his brings me to his metaphors.Most of his metaphors are used to describe how macrocosm blind has affected his life as well as his ability to serve his god. He uses the word light many times in the poem but this word can be substituted out for the word vision. His vision is what he is referring to but he chooses to use the word light to express to the reader that he isnt going blind, but that the light is running out which I pointed out earlier.The word talent used in line triple has a double meaning. The Biblical parable close hiding the talent and not turning the masters currency into a profit (described in the foot note) is used as an extended metaphor in which God is compared to the lord, while the speaker is the third servant who has buried the money. He feels that because he is blind he can no longer serve his god properly and is wondering if he should just end his life now.Finally Milton uses symbols throughout his poem to allude to the fact that he will not end his life, but that he will wait for his time and live out the rest of his life blind. One symbol can be seen in line eight where he capitalizes the word Patience.The word is capitalized to symbolize that patience is some sort of universe that he has encountered, and that it is what has convinced him not to end his life. In line twelve he states Thousands at his bidding speedThey also serve who only basis and wait. The thousands mentioned symbolize angels who serve God in every length, and that they also serve ones who are patient. This is Miltons justification for living out the rest of his life even though he doesnt feel he can serve his god anymore. He will be patient.This poem has lots of word play mainly dealing with imagery, metaphors, and symbols, but when you analyze and break it all down it turns into a great poem that makes you reflect on how John Milton felt about his blindness. I believe this was his intent in writing this poem.