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November 8th 2013 Poetry Heaven The sonnet is one of the most common methods in poetry. Sonnets are very restrictive because there is only 14 lines predominantly in iambic pentameter. This restricts the poetry writing, but that is what makes it so beautiful. Sonnets are usually about love. Their tone sound very nice, easy to read and they can be sung.
Sonnets are taken as a challenge for many poets because freeverse is easy and linear. “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” is a Sonnet written by John Milton. “Nothing in Heaven Functions as it Ought” is a poem by X. J. Kennedy.
Even though these Sonnets are similar in structure they have a very different in tone. These poems may not appear to be about love or to be romantic, but in a religious way love is predominant in these Sonnets.
In Milton’s poem the character speaking is a religious man that has lost his sight, and feels useless without it. He is patiently waiting to be an angel by his makers side. The speaker is having a conversation with himself. This poem is very personal because the reader is getting in his head and taking his opinion about life and death. This creates trust between the reader and the speaker.
On His Blindness Shmoop
He is talking in first person to a general public, not speaking to god directly.
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It can seem that he is speaking to ‘He’ the god but he uses ‘his’ many times. He talks to god in a prayer asking him if he denied his light and then answers himself. Kennedy’s poem has religious meaning and the speaker believes in hell and heaven. It’s written in third perspective, like he is looking from the outside. The speaker is describing heaven and hell like he has been in both. The voice is speaking in a general sense to no one directly. When he says “None takes his own sweet time” (10) he is speaking to himself and to others.
These poems differ in the speaker and the intended audience. Milton’s is personal; he gives a sense of who the speaker is. The intended audience is himself or to share his opinion to a wide public. In the other hand, Kennedys Poem is more general, intended for everyone. The speaker is not giving much of who he is but that he knows how heaven and hell are. It is more of an informational delivery. The selection of wording makes it a certain audience that should know what Venerable Bede is and who Peter and Milton are. The Venerable Bede was an English monk. He was greatly appreciated by the church.
The use of his name in this poem is to reflect how many innocent and ignorant people think of miracles as real, like in heaven, but they are Just exaggerating (Wikipedia contributor). Milton Friedman was an economist. Kennedy used this name to describe heaven not as a place of millionaires would think as full of gold. One similarity about these poems, other than its form, is that they are both speaking about heaven in a religious matter. Both give an idea of hat is heaven like, even doubt they are totally different ideas. Kennedys poem gives a comparison of heaven and hell.
How heaven might not be as good as people describe it and hell might not be as bad. How heaven is not at all how people imagined it. In Milton’s heaven is more of a question but he implies that people who “only stand and wait” (14) serve next to his maker. In heaven there is thousands of people serving . In Dotn poems wnen tney mentlon neaven tney capl tallze tne They describe Heaven as an existing place and for that it is a noun. This might create sense of heaven being part of their beliefs, a place to respect. The tone in the first stanza of “Spent” is very depressing.
The second one is more of a combination of both, starts in a positive tone and ends in a sad question. Then hope in the 3rd stanza when the resolution is obvious and there is a positive and secure voice. The abba abba abcabc rhyme scheme sound very alike. Even state and wait sound similar. In “Nothing” the reading is smooth and you can hear the ending rhyme scheme very easily. The use of abba cddc ababab creates a definite conclusion when he author talks about hell because of how the end scheme is repetitive at the end. The tone is very nice and sweet. It can be sung with ease.
Also he repeats the word of or off from line 3-7 and wording with double e like seed or sweet from line 5 to 10. After reading Milton’s poem Kennedys is easier to read. Milton’s poem has more difficult words and is a hard read. Still written two centuries apart they are still similar in structure and in tone. After reading these poems the reader can speculate how both of them can create a whole and how they have crashing opinions. In Spent” the speaker doesn’t speak about hell which could mean that this speaker might be from another religion that does not believe in hell.
In this same poem the speaker seems to be waiting patiently to go to heaven and serve his master implying that this is his reason for life; to serve god in the end of it. But in “Nothing” the speaker doubts about the sake of heaven and how it’s not what it seems. The speaker in “Spent” would take this poem as an offence to his beliefs. In Kennedys poem the speaker has talked about heaven and hell and also mentions “Not turn with a hush of old” (4) meaning that the speaker is dead and has visited the afterlife. Another pointer is when he mentions “Ask anyone, ‘How come you here, poor heart? (11) creating a sense that he is with anyone in hell. The question is where is he now? How did he go both to heaven and hell? Is this god criticizing his own creation? In Milton’s poem there is symbolism in the wording. He uses light and similar symbols like light, days, dark, hide, day-labor and light. He uses this symbol to describe the speaker. In Kennedys poem he uses metaphor repetitively as a symbol. The first and second tanza have many comparisons that let the reader form its own conclusion but afterwards in the 3rd and last stanza he gives more conclusive and direct descriptions.
Here are some examples: His gates lurch wide with the cackle of a cock; Not with a hush of gold as Milton had thought; Gangs of the slaughtered innocents keep huffing The nimbus off the Venerable Bede Like that of a dandelion gone to seed; The beatific choir keep breaking up, coughing. In this stanza there are many metaphors and comparisons that not everybody would understand. It would take a culturally intelligent man to understand. This creates a sense of intelligence where if the reader knows what he is writing about there would be a sense of satisfaction or connection.
These metaphors are left to the reader to interpret. The first stanza of “Nothing” is a one sentence, with very little pauses and reads like a breeze. The intention is in this stanza below where there is a contrast because there are many pauses that slow down the poem creating a longer second part to tne poem even aougn tnls But Hell, sweet Hell natn no Treewneellng part’ None takes his own sweet time, nor quickens pace. Ask anyone, “How come you here, poor heart? ” And he will slot a quarter through his face?” There’ll be an instant click?”a tear will start Imprinted with an abstract of his case.
Most sonnets are romantic and even though they don’t talk about love directly, their belief in god and heaven makes this a love for god or the maker, a religious attempt to connect to god with poetry. The speakers are talking about their beliefs but this means not only the speakers believe and love god but it says a lot about the authors. To write poems like these they have to know a lot about religion. In “Spent” the peaker talks sadly about himself but when it comes to god there is respect and not only talking of god as a higher being but a much better person.
This creates a sense of human inferiority and that the speaker or the author has low value of themselves or low self esteem. As if his love for god is greater than whom he is. Work Cited Page Wikipedia contributors. “Bede. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. Shmoop Editorial Team. “When I Consider How My Light is Spent (On His Blindness) Summary” Shmoop. com. Shmoop university, Inc. , 11 NOV. 2008. web. 7 NOV. 2013.
On His Blindness Shmoop. (2019, Dec 07). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-heaven-poetry-and-milton/
