Sample of an Academic Paper on Milton When I Consider

Much poetry from the 16th and 17th Centuries, was based around religion, addressing God, and asking for His help and advice. Two such examples of the authors who wrote this poetry are John Donne and John Milton. Both these men were highly religious people, and used their poetry to question and criticise God, as is shown in the two poems that I have studied below. In John’s Donne’s poem, Holy Sonnet 14, Donne is demanding God’s help. He uses violent masculine imagery as well as passive feminine imagery to make these demands.

Donne also uses metaphors and paradoxes in order to show his need for God in his life. In the first six lines of Holy Sonnet 14, Donne uses a metaphor with which his life is a usurped town. He says in the first line, “batter my heart, three personed god”. Here, Donne demands that God break into his town and allow the people to follow. In line two he starts to complain about how little God has done in pushing his way through the gates of his town.

He tells God to “o’erthrow me” demanding that God overthrow his town (soul) and take it over.

The fourth line begins with Donne showing how God’s power could break into the town and make it new. He uses powerful verbs such as “break, blow, burn” when describing God’s powerful means. Then in lines five and six, Donne proclaims to God that he wants to let God into his heart but that he has failed in doing so.

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Although Donne takes responsibility for his failure in letting God in, he criticises god’s viceroy (reasoning). In line seven, Donne shifts his feelings of self-remorse and turns them into criticisms of reason.

He begins this shift by starting the sentence with “reason”. Reason not only signifies a shift in his tone and feeling, but it also represents God’s viceroy, his representative, within Donne’s soul. The second part of this poem begins Donne’s second metaphor. In this part of the poem Donne demands things of God that would be more like characteristics of things that are against what God stands for. In line nine, Donne proclaims his love to God and he tells God he wants to be loved back. But in line ten he says he is “betrothed unto your enemy. Here, “betrothed” is inferring his relationship is so close to the enemy that it can be compared to marriage. Donne has become so close to God’s enemy that he feels helpless against him. In the next two lines Donne pleas for God’s help. Donne’s plea for help is reflected in action phrases such as “divorce me, break that knot again. ” He also pleads for action, saying “ravish me” and “enthrall me. ” Donne is telling God, paradoxically, that he will never be pure or virginal unless God rapes him and will never be free unless God enslaves him. A paradox Donne uses is how he asks God to take over his body.

He uses sexual images as if he was a female. Sexual imaginary is best shown in his final line, “Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me”. Being ravished or chaste is most commonly associated with women. He is saying in order for him to be virginal again, he must be raped and enslaved by God, becoming no longer pure. But when done by God, it will return him back to a virginal state. Another interesting paradox is why he uses the word “reason” when referring to God’s viceroy. Traditionally the word “reason” has been used to try and contradict religious influences.

This may imply along with the poem’s mixed syntax Donne’s confused state of mind when writing this poem. These types of things may also imply his insecurity with his faith in God. It seems as if he is using this poem to cry out for help from God. Donne uses metaphors and paradoxes in this poem to aid the reader in visualising God taking over Donne’s body and spirit. His first metaphor compares his life with “an usurped town. ” He uses a town’s physical imagery in order to give an animated description of God usurping his soul.

In the second half of the poem, Donne uses God and his enemy as the second metaphor. Here, God has to play the roles of his enemy in order to take over Donne’s heart. Milton’s Sonnet 19, “When I Consider How My Light is Spent,” shows a religious doubt within the author regarding his relationship to God. This doubt, possibly caused by the narrator’s recent loss of sight, stems from his confusion over what God wants him to do. Ultimately, there is no easy solution to the author’s problem of religious, and Milton suggests that any clearness and happiness to be found can be had only with patience.

The structure of the sonnet, which is Petrachian in style, is a conversation with God in the form of a question and an answer. It is divided into an octet which shows the reader the problem and leads to the question, and into a sestet which offers a sort of answer to the problem. The use of the word “fondly” in Line 7, which translates to “foolishly” in ‘new’ English, shows that the author has doubt as to whether questioning God was the right thing for him to, and shows concern that he has made his relationship with God even more tenable.

We are shown at the start of the poem, that since his blindness became apparent, Milton’s “talent” has become ineffectual, and he has a feeling of not being able to serve his God in the ways that he has done before. We are not told exactly what Milton’s line of work, or “talent” was, but it is clear that his life is feeling dark and empty while he is unable to perform his previously usual tasks, which is obviously making him feel like he is worthless in God’s eyes. We presume that the reply comes from a source of God, either being directly from Him, or indirectly via a messenger or angel.

In reply to Milton’s question as to whether a man has to be a hard worker to gain the respect of God, God says that it is not the hard-working man that comes off best, but the loyal, and believing one. The loss of light in this poem can be literal (physical blindness) or figurative (his understanding crippled, leading to a mind full of doubts). Milton doesn’t understand how God can afflict him with this illness, and yet still expect him to perform his usual duties to him

There is a Biblical reference within the poem to a parable in the gospel of Matthew, in which one man’s “talent” is taken away from him, and he is left in darkness, and yet another man has five different “talents” Milton, as a religious man, would more than likely been aware of this story, and be worried that he had offended God in such a way that he has replayed it upon him. Ultimately, I don’t think Milton is criticising God for withdrawing his sight, but is more concerned as to what he has done to deserve it, and has a worry as to how he can continue to serve God without the use of his sight.

To conclude, both the poems are very emotionally and religiously charged, both asking for answers from God, and asking for some form of help. Both men seem to be in a state of religious confusion, not sure which way to turn next within their lives, nor how to regain the loyalty to God that they think they have lost. As religion is no longer as prominent in society as it was in the 16th/17th Century, the poems are not as easily related to a modern audience, and it is more difficult to understand the importance that religion had within the lives of everyday people.