Milton's 'On His Blindness' Essay

"Rhetoric and sophistry testify to the fact that the world in which we live is a

In the play, King Lear, vision and blindness are repeated allegories that relate to the characters, Lear and Gloucester. This exemplifies the theme of self-knowledge and consciousness that occurs in the play. These classic allegorical is inverted in King Lear, producing a situation in which those with well working eyes cannot see what is happening around them, and those without sight are able to “see” clearly. What do I mean? Well, Lear is completely “blind” to the character of his children, while Gloucester blindness is literal. Blindness is echoed through Gloucester and Lear to explain Lear's metaphorical blindness with Gloucester's literal loss of vision.

The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.

Carver is well known for his short stories and poetries. Among his works, “Cathedral” is considered one of the best, favorite, and most optimistic and the most developed. Carver’s story revolves around the theme of seeing and looking. Most people believed they could not live without cathedrals which brought them closer to their God. Similarly, people place so much importance to the physical eyesight and tend to think they can hardly live without it. Robert, a blind man, is invited to the narrator’s home and the narrator is shown troubled by Roberts’s disability. Later on, the narrator is amazed to see the blind smoking despite having even thought of helping him with his drink earlier on (Carver 516- 524). The latter brought to attention that as much as natural looking is essential, more essential is the ability to see or to visualize things. The writer explains that it might be tougher to be without eyesight; however, it is possible to live without it and make the best of what else one has, more so the brain. Visualizing brings out a better view of the significance of life and things surrounding us.

In this quote, the narrator is showing that with the light comes knowledge of the world for the child. The light is bleak and not always encouraging. When the child exposes himself to the world he loses part of his innocence and childhood. Therefore, the child may wish to remain in the darkness. The darkness in this specific excerpt is personified as a slow and gentle relief. The narrator attempts to convey the concept that darkness, which is reality, means nothing without light to illuminate it because the light makes one aware of the dark, and therefore comprehend reality.

The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him

In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carter, the narrator has his vision, but he does not truly see the world. The blind man lacks sight, but sees deeper meanings to life.

The second stanza is addressed to ‘wise men’ who know they cannot hide from death and it’s inevitability. Poetic techniques used in this stanza are metaphors, rhyme, symbols and repetition. The line “words had forked no lightning” is a metaphor because words cannot actually fork lightning. This line suggests that the men hadn’t made an impact on the world, nor accomplished all they wanted to in life. Rhyming is also a technique used in every line, ‘right’ and ‘night’ are rhyming words used, and ‘they’ in the second line rhymes with ‘day’ in the previous stanza. So ‘night’, ‘light’ and ‘right’ rhyme, and ‘day’ and ‘they’ rhyme, hence the ABA ABA rhyming pattern. The third poetic device used in the second stanza is symbolism of ‘dark’ in the first line, which represents death. Repetition of “do not go gentle into that good night” is repeated every second stanza as the ending line, ‘night’ in the final line also symbolises death.

Milton starts the poem with a feel of sadness and a sense of being useless, and this is so because of his

Milton draws his inspiration from these verses in describing Satans pride and his attempt to wage war in heaven. However, in his attempt to make Paradise Lost both a conversation and a narration, Milton decides to describe Satans descend from heaven in closer detail, even with the risk of committing sacrilege.

Paradise Lost by John Milton thrives off the implicit and explicit aspects of Hell offered by the narrator and the physical and psychological descriptions offered by various characters. Their separate perspectives coincide to expose the intentions of Milton and the purpose Hell serves in this epic poem. Each character adds a new element to the physical and psychological development of this alternative world. The narrator and Satan provide the greatest insight into the dynamics of this underworld by attempting to redress the issues of accommodation.

Starting off with a reflection of “how [his] light is spent” (Milton 1), the speaker reminisces over the time before when he had his sight. Now he spends his days in a “dark world and wide” (Milton 2) as it is always night for him. This leads into the primary struggle in the poem as he asks himself, “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied” (Milton 7). The speaker is conflicted whether he must continue his service to God, even though he is blind. As a consolation mechanism for his impairment, Patience appears to answer the speaker’s question. It reminds him that God doesn’t require all his followers to work, but only hopes that they should “bear his mild yoke” (Milton 11). Enduring through suffering and pain is a sign of strength and satisfies God. As Patience could be the speaker’s subconscious, his free will is apparent as he chooses to “stand and wait” (Milton 14). Thus, “Sonnet 19…” portrays stronger self-control than “The World…”

The poem talks about a man- an anonymous “he”- a perfectionist whose poetry was understandable and who, himself, understood “human folly” and the human psyche like “the back of his hand”. He was

    The theme blindness & sight best resembles Tiresias as he is blind, but he has the ability to metaphorically  ‘see’ what others can’t. A good example of this is when Tiresias says “How terrible- to see the truth

In order to give “The Bard” literary standing, and thus provide an effective platform to broadcast his views, the poet makes several careful and deliberate choices in the poem’s structure and language to create a sense age and grandeur for the poem. By referring to both to classical Greek poetry and popular and influential literary pieces, like Milton’s Paradise Lost (Gray 20), Gray manufactures standing for his poem. The full title specifies the poem as a ‘Pindaric Ode’. Though this was not an uncommon form of ode – and one which Gray used frequently – specifying that “The Bard” is a classical style of poem immediately sets the reader up with the understanding that this poem will be written with the Greek style in mind, and thus gives it an almost classical credibility. Although it was written before the Romantic period of literature, Gray’s use of landscape and nature, ask the reader to contrast the landscape to the actions of the English army and begs comparisons between physical nature and human nature. Gray, whilst linking the poem to ancient works and