By Eddy Jose Ramon (Fall 2022)
The author of the Sonnets, John Milton, is an English poet that is best known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. Together with Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, it confirms Milton’s reputation as one of the greatest English poets. In his prose works Milton advocated the abolition of the Church of England and the execution of Charles I. Milton was born on December 9th, 1608 and died on November 8th, 1674. Because John Milton was educated to write in both Latin and Greek, he created sonnets in a similar format as Petrarchan Italian or Shakespearean English sonnets. It wasn’t fully original, but modified in his own writing style. His poem structure consists of the same rhyming scheme as the Petrarchan sonnet. They followed the pattern of ABBAABBACDECDE, but they did not have a defined separation between the first eight lines, or octet, and the following six, or sestet. Milton often added in a problem at the beginning of the poem that was resolved or addressed by the end. This is a feature that is common to all sonnets. Several pieces have also influenced different writers and how they perceive Christianity and incorporate it into their work.
In terms of religion: John Milton was a protestant, Christian. Klimt has always viewed John Milton as a free thinker and his thinking isn’t exclusive to just the sonnets, but other works as well. “This shows the centrality of the Bible to Milton’s family life, but perhaps also its centrality to family life in general in a period where almost everyone in England was officially a member of the Church of England. It is worth remembering therefore that though Milton was a free thinker and called into question many of the orthodoxies of the church, he nevertheless did so from a devoutly Christian perspective. As a strict Protestant, perhaps even a Puritan, Milton’s concern was to strip away what he saw as the unnecessary customs, rules and paraphernalia that centuries of Catholicism had accrued to Christianity. He believed in confronting the original text of the Bible, as plainly and directly as possible” (Klimt).
The selected sonnets that are chosen to talk about in this context are Sonnets 19, 22 and 23 to analyze them in a deeper level to Milton’s intentions for writing them. Sonnet 19, or also known as: “When I consider how my light is spent”, talks about how Milton was able to cope with his blindness. Since it’s unclear the actual time frame of this poem was published, many have speculated to believe that this sonnet in particular, to be written before the year 1664. This was the time after John Milton had gotten completely blind. In summary, it starts off with his reflection on how he has spent his years of life being a representation of “light”. The second line expands on that, explaining that before even half of the speaker’s life has passed, he is forced to live in a world that is “dark… and wide.” The Petrarchan rhyme scheme is evident in these first four lines, and it is continued in the end rhymes “present” and “prevent” and “chide” and “denied” in the next four lines. After the octet, the speaker brings in a reply from God. This is an obvious example of the question and answer, or problem and solution format common to sonnets.
In sonnet 22, it also talks about Milton’s blindness but addressed to Cyriack Skinner, Milton’s student explaining his hardship when experiencing blindness. He also expresses this pain and loss in his other work, Paradise Lost. Cyriack Skinner was the grandson of Sir Edward Coke, who served as Chief Justice of Common Pleas and the King’s Bench from 1613-16 and authored the famous The Institutes of the Law of England. He served Milton as a reader and amanuensis. Although not religious heavy, it still leads into an impact of how his writing influences Christian morals through his blindness disability.
In sonnet 23, it shows the perspective of how Milton is mourning the loss of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock due to childbirth. The poem describes a vision the poet thought he had in which he saw his recently deceased wife. She appeared from beyond the grave as a vision that reminds him of several different mythological and religious figures and visions. Milton uses the standard rhyme scheme that he used in his sonnets, ABBAABBA in the first octet of the poem. In the sestet, the lines follow the pattern of CDCDCD, another very common conclusion to Petrarchan sonnets. Milton also includes figures and other works such as Leviticus, as well as Euripedes’s play Alcestis and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
One theme that I want to touch upon in these sonnets, is the use of Christian phrases and how it causes some controversy in this era and the modern era of today. In each of the sonnets, each specific set of phrases and words add a bit more references to Christian set pieces from the Bible and its biblical context. In sonnet 19, it has a phrase: “To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, least he returning chide, Doth God exact day labour, light deny’d, I fondly ask; But patience to prevent…his State Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’re Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and waite” (Milton). This piece is referring to sub-context within the stories of the book of Matthew’s 11 taken from the word of Jesus describing “burden light”, 20 the laborers in the vineyard to his labor and 25 where he compares his light to the Ten Virgins. Psalm 68 and Zechariah 1 refer to the actions of God’s servants and what they did on Earth. In sonnet 23, it contains phrases like: “Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint, Purification in the old Law did save, And such, as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, Came vested all in white, pure as her mind: Her face was vail’d, yet to my fancied sight, Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin’d” (Milton). Each line takes influence and writing from the book of Luke 2 with Mosaic rules for the step-by-step process of childbirth and purification. As well as the dressed in white clothing taking place from Revelations 7. The prior feedback to these sonnets can be described as keeping the protestant Christian rules, where most did not view John Milton lightly thanks to his “free thinker” methodology.
It is necessary for readers of this text to realize that these pieces are important today because it was a way to express the troubles and tragedies of Milton losing his eyesight and his religious perspective. It was important back then because it has affected his life during his troubled marriage and belief in what’s called “Mortalism”, which pretty much means that it’s the Christian belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal and may include the belief that the soul is “sleeping” after death until the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, a time known as the intermediate state. It allowed Milton to take and execute certain writing decisions. Modern Christian poetry and other works were essentially influenced by Milton, not by the sonnets but the poet specifically. He has always been a major influence in literature both during his lifetime and after his death. His reputation among readers and poets is a known fact since it has been proven that several writers and poets frequently wrote under the influence of this great epic poet. Milton was an artist who had written about various subjects, he was both a poet and a renowned prose writer. As he had something to say about every field of life his admirers and followers were not necessarily from just one category. Many people, including politicians, poets, writers, composers found something valuable in Milton and his works. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate Milton’s controversial works and lay down the influence of Milton on the mentioned figures of the period and aftermath.
As for religious influence, various writers such as Nathaniel Evans in 1772, roughly a hundred years after Milton’s death, wrote a piece called “Beginning of a Poem on The Passion and Resurrection of Christ”, which in sort is some sort of imitation of Milton’s “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”. It has taken a biblical narrative in which both pieces are similar in both development and diction between the poems are strikingly apparent. Both poems’ opening lines specify the time of Christ’s birth. Besides, in the second lines of each poem Christ is named as “Son of Heav’ns eternal king” by Milton and as Heav’n’s eternal son” by Evans. The third lines of the poems both mention Christ’s supernatural being. Both of the poem’s state that Christ’s mission is to redeem mankind and they indicate the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. The poems are obviously parallel to each other, and this parallelism is too clear for someone to notice even after the first reading of the poems. “When heav’n’s eternal Son, (Who deign’d the flashly form to wear, And all our sins and troubles bear), His sacred blood for man must pour By Satan’s wiles undone. O Thou! All-hallowed Spirit, hear! Inspirer of the prophets old, who tun’d the royal David’s ear, When thro’ his breast sweet transports roll’d; Thou Paraclete divine, o’er-rule my humble lyre, And touch a mortal breast with thy celestial fire…Our gratitude to prove And sing Messiah’s love, Unless thy holy flame our frozen hearts inspire” (Evans 1-17). In conclusion, Milton’s religious beliefs infused with his works such as the sonnets, have been greatly influenced based on the true meaning and interpretation, and feedback of the era they were written in and the era of today of how other poets were able to influence themselves thanks to Milton’s work and his beliefs.
Works Cited
Milton, John Sonnets 19, 22, 23, 1664. Print.
Klimt, Roberta. “‘Reason Is but Choosing’: Freedom of Thought and John Milton.” British Library, 3 Sept. 2018, https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/articles/reason-is-but-choosing-freedom-of-thought-and-john-milton.
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