They also serve who only stand and wait.(Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) Is kingly thousands at his bidding speedĪnd post o’er land and ocean without rest: That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not needĮither man’s work or his own gifts: who bestīear his mild yoke, they serve him best.
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” My true account, lest he returning chide, To serve therewith my Maker, and present Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent Toward which time leads me and the will of heaven Įre half my days in this dark world and wide,Īnd that one talent which is death to hide It shall be still in strictest measure even, That some more timely happy spirits endueth. Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,Īnd inward ripeness doth much less appear, My hasting days fly on with full career,īut my late spring no bud or blossom showeth. Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! HOW soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth, On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three In the second poem, written late in life, Milton’s obstacle is the blindness, which, he fears, has left his great talent “useless.” Again, as in his youth, Milton submits to God’s will for him, aligning himself with the submission of the angels to the will of God: “they also serve who only stand and wait.” Midway through the poem, he grasps the importance of submission: God’s will, not his own, will ensure the right outcome. In the first, written soon after he left Cambridge University, Milton complains that he has turned twenty-three without having accomplished anything.
Each one describes a crisis of faith in which he feels trapped by circumstances but gains the grace to trust God’s will. The two short poems that follow show the depth of Milton’s spiritual life. From the Introduction in Spiritual Classics:
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