Saturday, May 18, 2019

How Soon Hath Time

HOW SOON HATH TIME- JOHN MILTON HOW SOON HATH TIME is a Petrarchan sonnet written by John Milton the famous English poet. It is a sonnet written on the 9th of declination 1631. Typical of the Petrarchan sonnet, there is a tonal c been as well as a assortment in the mood and emotions of the poet. The poem has an autobiographical touch. In the Octave, the poet laments the passage of 23 years of his biography, especially the twenty-third year. The sonnet begins with a quality of frustration and desperation. He suffers from the complex growing youngsters make believe.Time is pictured as a subtle thief of youth which has wings and it has carried away the 23 years of his life. His days are hurrying away in a rush. He is growing by age, but the spring of his life has seen no bud nor blossom. He fears that he has not achieved anything in his life despite crossing 23 years. In the second half of the octave, he states that though he has attained manhood, he does not touch his age. He ha s that physical immaturity which has made him look very young and effeminate. He despairs of not wholly being unmasculine, but also a failure in life as a poet and also as a respectable man of high standing.Physical immaturity seems to go hand in hand with mental, psychological and intellectual immaturity. Though he is a man now, he does not have the mature looks nor does he find an inward ripeness. He feels sad that some people are so well endowed at the proper time. The word ENDOWED suddenly makes the poet realize the one who endows- God. ultimately the mood changes. There is an introspection and acceptance. He comes to terms with the reality. He feels that all he needs is time and necessarily, along with it ,the blessings of God.He would, one day, sooner or later, in a large amount or small, bless him. It is destiny, he realizes. He would indeed be blessed by God and his fortunes may change for the better. He decides to stand and wait in anticipation of the grace of God. He f eels that right now, it is the destiny allotted by God and accordingly, he has to carry out his part of the duty and wait in patience. He dreams of a day when God blesses him in His own strictest measure. He would bless him with a sense of creativity so that he would bloom to be a better poet.He realizes that human beings are allotted to bout their roles, to perform Gods get out. If he waits with patience, Gods grace would be on him eternally. Sometimes less, sometimes more, it may vary, but the Almighty, the Power, would invariably remain up above, blessing him. So all he needs is Time, Patience and the will of Heaven. In the last line, the poet refers to God as a Taskmaster. A taskmasters job is to extract work and God will make him strive hard so that one day he would be a great poet because that is what, he feels ,God intends him to be.If not today, perhaps someday, he will achieve what he dreamed of, the success he strived for and the glory he anticipated. He would certainl y succeed as what he aspired to be. The sonnet ends with a tone of hope and consolation. Milton presents the same theme in ON HIS BLINDNESS. A parallel reference can be made of the lines from Shakespeares AS YOU LIKE IT where he speaks that we are allotted to play our roles to perform Gods will. All the worlds a stage and all men and women mere players

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