Poem of the Day: ‘When I consider how my light is spent’

John Milton (1608–1674) was Cromwell’s Secretary for Foreign Tongues (chief translator for England, in other words), despite the fact that he was totally blind by 1652. He produced Paradise Lost, the English language’s great epic poem, in 1667, despite the fact that he could not see. His Latin writings are possibly the best since the Renaissance. His early verse has never faded from the canon of English poetry. His writings on free speech are still quoted. He remains a towering figure in literature — though he did not often address his personal situation in his verse.

On his blindness, for example, one starts with “When I consider how my light is spent,” c. 1655. A Petrarchan sonnet (sometimes given the title “On His Blindness” by later anthologists), the poem turns his lack of sight to a religious question, “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” If God gives us talents that we do wrong to waste, what are we to do when we can no longer use those talents? And Milton comes to his famous conclusion, the religiously exact — and exacting — realization that “They also serve who only stand and wait.” A poem for Milton’s December 9 birthday.