On His Blindness – Analysis

Considering the title, the sonnet is going to deal about someone's blindness, someone who cannot see anymore. It also creates curiosity about the principal theme: the reader does not know who is blind, why he become blind and also the conseguences it brings to him.

The structure of the poem consists of an octave and a sestet: it reminds the typical Petrarchian sonnet. The octave and the sestet are not clearly distinguishable, because the first sentence starts at line 1 and concludes at line 7 (the first seven and a half lines of this poem are one big, long, confusing sentence), the second sentence starts at half line 7 and ends at line 14.

The first two lines introduce speaking voice's consideration about his blindness, through a puritan point of view: the verb "spent" also makes us think of money. Milton is reflecting on how he has used or "spent" his vision: now that it is gone, he asks himself if he has used it wisely or he threw it away; this refers to one of the basis of Puritanism, that is the "Parable of the Talents".

The term "days" also introduces the idea of daylight. The speaker's "days" are now more like nights. He uses another metaphor to compare his lack of vision to an imagined world that does not have light.

Finally, calling the world "dark and wide" makes it sound like a scary place. Milton makes it seem as if the world has run out of light, rather than growing dark because of any blindness on his part.

He also thinks on his life after death and asks himself what will be his fate to God, and there Patience helps the speaking voice on his dilemma. Patience is personified - it is one of the most important value of Puritan way of behaviour, with hard work and social wealth - as someone who can talk sense into the speaker: it reassure him on his future, because other people follow God through sea and mountains; he does not need to see, he can "only stand and wait" because he bear his condition ("his mild yoke")