Poetry Group Forum
This is a place where we can discuss new topics for poetry projects or challenges, talk about well known poets that we like - even Shakespeare! Hopefully by sharing our reading experiences we can expand our knowledge of poets and poetry and inspire each other. We could also use these pages to post 'How to' articles for new poets, ie How to write a particular form of poem, for example a Haiku, or e...
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Milton's Sonnet #19 (Needs some explaining) (3)
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day labour, light deny'd,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.
Tithonus at the end of his poem 'Half Brayed' suggested checking this poem of Milton's out, so I did and found it intriguing as I don't understand all of the references. Anyone know the exact meaning of the poem?
Cool, I read up a bit about Milton and found he was either blind or going blind when he wrote this sonnet, so perhaps as a believer of God he found it difficult to understand why God would take something so important as his eyesight away from him?