John Milton's poem, "When I Consider How My Light is Spent," is an excursion into doubt, with one's self and one's God. The poem is one man's attempt to reconcile his relationship with God since he feels his service to God has been hindered as a result of blindness. This paper will explore the notion of how Milton struggled with feelings of worthiness and justification and how he reconciled these feelings through his faith.

According to Abrahms, Milton's blindness represents a "severe test" which proves to be a challenge difficult to accept at times (Abrahms 1443). However difficult the blindness proved to be at times and however his faith might have wavered, Milton was still able to write, which, according to the poem, was Milton's single talent. Lionel Trilling observed that even though Milton's blindness presented an understandable challenge, his greatest works were "performed under discountenance, and in blindness" (Trilling...
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