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  • Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint - British Literature Wiki

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    This document summarizes John Milton's sonnet "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint". It was written in 1658 after the death of his second wife Katherine Woodcock in childbirth. The sonnet describes a dream the narrator has where his late wife appears to him as if rescued from death, like the character Alcestis in Greek mythology. However, when he reaches out to embrace her, he wakes up, and the daylight brings back his sorrow and blindness. The last line reflects how Milton's blindness meant darkness was his normal state, so waking meant the return of his "night" of grief and sightlessness without his wife.

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    This document summarizes John Milton's sonnet "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint". It was written in 1658 after the death of his second wife Katherine Woodcock in childbirth. The sonnet describes a dream the narrator has where his late wife appears to him as if rescued from death, like the character Alcestis in Greek mythology. However, when he reaches out to embrace her, he wakes up, and the daylight brings back his sorrow and blindness. The last line reflects how Milton's blindness meant darkness was his normal state, so waking meant the return of his "night" of grief and sightlessness without his wife.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    79 views2 pages

    Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint - British Literature Wiki

    Uploaded by

    Antonia Young
    This document summarizes John Milton's sonnet "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint". It was written in 1658 after the death of his second wife Katherine Woodcock in childbirth. The sonnet describes a dream the narrator has where his late wife appears to him as if rescued from death, like the character Alcestis in Greek mythology. However, when he reaches out to embrace her, he wakes up, and the daylight brings back his sorrow and blindness. The last line reflects how Milton's blindness meant darkness was his normal state, so waking meant the return of his "night" of grief and sightlessness without his wife.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    British Literature Wiki

    Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint

    Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint

    Back to John Milton

    Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint is a sonnet composed by John Milton, a poet during the 1600’s who is most famous for his epic, Paradise Lost. Also
    known as Sonnet XXIII, the sonnet was created around 1658 following the death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, who died in childbirth.

    The death of Alcestis

    The Poem

    Methought I saw my late espoused Saint


    Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,
    Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave,
    Rescued from death by force though pale and faint.
    Mine as whom washed from spot of childbed taint
    Purification in the old law did save,
    And such as yet once more I trust to have
    Full sight of her in heaven without restraint,
    Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:
    Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sight
    Love, sweetness, goodness in her person shined
    So clear, as in no face with more delight.
    But O, as to embrace me she inclined,
    I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.

    Interpretation

    A short interpretation of the poem details how a man dreams of a woman coming back from the grave in a dream and when she is just about to embrace the narrator he
    wakes losing her. Milton makes reference to Alcestis, a figure found in one of the great tales of Hercules. Hercules is told to have snatched Alcestis from Hades after her
    untimely demise and brought her back to her husband Admetus. Like Alcestis, Milton’s “saint” is veiled, though this could be more or less due to his blindness at the
    time of his second marriage. His blindness and not having actually seen his late wife, may also be why instead of describing ways that her beauty shines, or remarking
    about recognizing her face, he details that it was her characteristics that shone from her and not actually her physical characteristics. Evidence that this could be his
    second wife is seen in line five, where he divulges how his wife died in labor.

    The last two lines are the most important as not only do they include the twist seen in many English sonnets, but they show more of Milton’s emotions and how his
    blindness has affected him.
    He details how when he wakes from the dream that day brings back his night. This works two-fold as one can interpret it from an emotional level and physical level, and
    another from a more metaphysical level. The first is due the actual daybreak awakening him to the world where his wife is deceased. This brings back his, “night” or
    more aptly named his sorrow for his latest wife. The metaphysical level is more interesting as how it pertains to Milton’s blindness. Since he is blind, the natural world is
    dark to him, but in the subconscious realm of dreams he has vision.

    References
    Death of Alcestis. Wikimedia Commons
    https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/ les//2018/06/FileAlcesti.jpg

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