When I Consider How My Life Is Spent

In the poem "When I Consider How my Light is Spent"
by John Milton, he is clearly talking about his going
blind in his middle-age. This poem states how Milton
did not think of his handicap, as an actual "handicap."
He does not consider himself "blind" but would argue that
the world has merely ran out of light. This poem shows
he is quite an optimistic and religious man, when
he makes refrences to relgious figures such as "God doth not
need Either man's work or his own gifts;" I feel that
John Milton is trying to tell us that God does not need
people's fortunes that is not what he wants at all, he
doesn't need the labor of one person, that the point of
spiritual work is not to increase God's profits. It seems
as if Milton can tell his future by stating that he has gone
blind halfway through his life-span. Also in the begining
of the poem I feel as he contradicts his optimistic statements
of the middle and ending of the poem. The quote "Ere half my
days in this dark world and wide" also contradict because at
second he says the the world is wide, and we think of wide we think
of possibilties and opportunities but he shuts that down with throwing
in the "dark" that word is a lot more powerful than wide and shows us
that the darkness leaves us with no way to distinguish the good and bad
of this possibility and freedom we all have. In conclusion this poem to me
shows us that Milton did not see his sight loss as a burden or setback but as
an inspiration to do better and look at it in a possitive aspect.
It tells us that he is a patient man who lives for God, and believes
that everything happens for a reason and too look at everything that
happens in life as a blessing.