A Comparison Of On His Blindness By John Milton

On His Blindness is a sonnet written by John Milton who was an English poet and historian. His work is said to resemble Shakespeare’s work. The Mistress is a West Indian poem, written by Jane King. Her poems deal with the race consciousness of the people of the Caribbean and the many concerns of the Caribbean societies. In the poems, On His Blindness and The Mistress, each poet try to capture their whole meaning of life, their guilt, their hopes and plans for the future and to show that things are only temporary in life. In these two poems, the point-of-view, imagery, form and meter reveal the relationship between the two, discussing their similarities and differences.
Both poems are told from a first person point-of-view. In John Milton’s poem, the speaker is speaking about how he lives in a world with no light, only darkness and that all his light has been used up. In Jane King’s poem, the speaker is talking about a life she is living as a wife after her husband has left or passed away. She is staying in a temporary home and tries to keep it nice and going. This temporariness is seen in Milton’s poem, where the speaker is talking about his vision. That his sight was not permanent, it was only temporary and he eventually lost it. In the third stanza of The Mistress she says, “I have used an alien domesticity”. It shows that she is living in a strange home, a strange family life and that being a
Mohammed 2 housewife is “dutiful” and “dull”. On His Blindness is also saying that people are dutiful to God; they are obedient and controlled by God. He has many people doing his “bidding”.
John Milton takes on a religious path in the poem, linking to the Bible in line 3, “talent which is death to hide”. Talent is a standard of weight...

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...tanding. Patience is able to cut him short before he asks the question and explains that God does not need man or anything to be happy. The meter of the poem is in iambic pentameter. The Mistress, the physical structure is made up of four stanzas where as the other poem does not. The rhyming scheme is not very fixed or regular, ABCDA. Only the first and last lines of each stanza rhymes. This type of free-verse poem is the run-on lines or enjambment.
Both Milton and King’s poems create a vision of their world and their life. They both show their struggles of everyday life between being blind and being a housewife. The Mistress hoped for a better life. On His Blindess, the speaker is confused and has a feeling of guilt. He felt
Mohammed 4 that he failed to use his sight or “light” when he had it and that he wanted to do so many things when it was available to him.