How the Poet John Milton Responded When He Went Blind in His Forties

By the early 1650s—in his early 40s—the great English poet John Milton (1608–1674) was blind in both eyes, probably experiencing bilateral retinal detachments.

It was during this time that he dictated sonnet 19, “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,” reflecting on this change in his life and wrestling with the purposes of God in his disability:

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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.”