Sonnet- Caroline Totty

When I Consider How My Light Is Spent 

by John Milton

When I consider how my light is spent,
   Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
   And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
   My true account, lest He returning chide;
   “Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
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 mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
   And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
   They also serve who only stand and wait.”

"When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" by John Milton is written as a Petrarchan sonnet in iambic pentameter. It is divided into two sections of eight and six lines that follow rhyme scheme ABBAABBAC CDECDE. It contains five iambs although Milton wrote some of the lines to not fit the pattern exactly. This poem differs from other Petrarchan sonnets because the volta is not as defined as it normally would be. After line eight the reply that the man is looking for comes, but it is not totally clear cut and defined that it is a reply and instead the sonnet just seems to keeps flowing. 

This sonnet is about a middle-aged man who claims he has lost sight of his goals and can no longer see where he is headed or his vision and is wondering if God needs him to serve him even without having a vision of where he wants to go or who he wants to be anymore. In line 9 a figure named Patience answers him stating that God has servants who run all over land and sea to serve him and he is in no NEED of this man's service. I think the subtle volta contributes to this sonnet because it is Patience interrupting the man before he can say anything more, and the volta helps display that by making it seem as if the man faded out as Patience slowly came in to talk. I chose this poem because I enjoyed the fact that it was a conversation between two people and I just honestly found it to be an interesting poem in the sense of it being about a middle-aged man basically questioning his whole life up until that point.