Heaven: Poetry and Milton
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. He is talking in first person to a general public, not speaking to god directly. 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
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. He is talking in first person to a general public, not speaking to god directly. 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
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.