Essay about Use of Literary Techniques in Miltons Sonnet

Use of Literary Techniques in Miltons Sonnet nbsp; At the prime of his life, Milton was struck with blindness. As a result of this tragedy, Milton created a sonnet about his blindness. He questioned the meaning of this tragedy, of the future, and God for his blindness within the sonnet. Within Miltons sonnet about his blindness: figurative language, personification, his intent and prosody are adopted to convey his questions and heart felt acceptance of his blindness. Milton uses figurative language to express his grievances and discontent. He reflects upon his life and quot;how my light is spent,quot; or the time he had his sight. Milton then expresses the feeling of the quot;dark†¦show more content†¦He personifies quot;Patiencequot; as if patience were a man who replies for him. Patience is his reasoning for accepting the fact that he is blind. It is used to introduce the answer towards his questioning, and as a change or turning point within the sonnet. As in standard Petrarchian sonnets this change is in the 8-9 line, and a transition between problem and solution is achieved. The problem was whether or not he should continue to write. Yet, in line 8 the personification conveys the theme of acceptance through Patience. More or less, Miltons patience, or a result of his patience, is telling him that God accepts whoever bears his burdens and has no need of Mans ideas and creations. Furthermore, he states that God is served by your own means and that there are many ways direct or indirect to serve and satisfy God. Some serve as priests and popes, quot;thousands at his bidding... and post oer land and ocean without rest.quot; Then there is the rest of the world who take life as it is; others that quot;also serve who only stand and wait.quot; In addition, Miltons prosody and intent on words creates the mood and theme of the sonnet. Words such as light has the ability to have many meanings and interpretations. However, within this sonnet it means his life up to his blindness and his sight. quot;Death to hidequot; plays upon the idea that in order to disappear, death is the only way to go. quot;MyShow MoreRelated‘Sonnet XIX: When I Consider How my Light is Spent by John Milton1033 Words   |  5 PagesJohn Milton’s ‘Sonnet XIX: When I Consider How my Light is Spent’, uses the literary techniques of metaphorical representations, irony and satire to convey it’s themes of religion, specifically concerning the use of ones God given talents, and the issue of disability upon and individuals religion to an audience in a political climate enduring through a drastic state of change in structure and values in a cultural revolution that valued a persons by their measure such as a poet through their authorialRead MoreLegacies in Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley and When I Consider How My Light Is Spent by John Milto1334 Words   |  6 PagesThe Petrarchan sonnets â€Å"Ozymandias† by Percy Bysshe Shelley and â€Å"When I Consider How My Light Is Spen t† by John Milton both consider a man’s legacy after death. However, both poems talk about a man’s legacy from very different perspective and come to their own conclusions. In â€Å"Ozymandias†, a traveler describes a broken statue of King Ozymandias (the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II) and the barren ruins surrounding the statue. Ozymandias believes that his legacy will last forever. ThroughRead MoreCompare the Ways in Which Hopkins’ ‘God’s Grandeur’ and Wordsworth’s ‘the World Is Too Much with Us’ Use the Sonnet Form to Address Their Contemporary Concerns.4584 Words   |  19 Pagesastounding shift in poetic style, in which many based their work on the ‘beauty’ of their surroundings, and how mankind affected this. Of this period, two of the leading nature poets in British literary history, Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Wordsworth became known, renowned as great figures in Bri tish literary history. Both adopted a ‘sacramental’ view of nature, that is they saw beyond the obvious features commonly associated with the natural world such as phenomenal features of the landscape. Writing