Milton Sonnet 7

The old saying “wiser beyond their years” is shown in Milton’s Sonnet 7, as he proves both his point, and this deep-rooted saying true. Milton, in lines 5-6, embodies this saying by writing: “Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth / That I to manhood am arriv’d so near;” (410). These two lines show the reader that time can change your intelligence, but your body will not move with it as progressively, and vice-versa. The speaker laments that his inner self is much older than his physical body would make him appear, which is another ravage time has had on his mental state. Although he has lived 23 years of life, he has not had enough time or experience to accomplish anything magnificent, which he craves. In a close reading of these lines, …show more content…
As a Petrarchan sonnet, Milton embraces the line scheme to speak on the concept of time as a universal matter, which then focuses in on the concept of time in a religious manner, which slightly conveys the speaker’s thought process. In the first two lines of the poem, Milton captures the speaker’s fleeting youth, as he ponders where his childhood has gone, and what it has amounted to. In the following two lines (3-4), the author subsequently embraces the internal psychological effect that time has on humans, and how it can impact one’s career. In addition to his earlier thoughts, lines 5-6 challenge the speaker’s inability to feel comfortable in his body, as he appears much younger than he really is, which highlights a negative effect that age can have on a person. As a turning point in the sonnet, lines 7-8, Milton practically relates to the audience that time is fleeting, and so much can happen before one embarks on their final journey into the great unknown. After reading lines 9-12, we witness a shift in the poem’s subject, as Milton introduces God, and how the speaker’s experiences amount to a single moment of judgement when he reaches the end of his life. As the concluding two lines to the sonnet, Milton embraces both his universal and religious understandings of time and wishes that he can use his given abilities to honor and abide his everlasting God. As Sonnet 7 progresses, the audience witnesses the effects that the passage of time has on educated and growing members of society, as they struggle to figure out who they are, what ambitions they may have, and analyze what they have done to change the world. We get to witness the speaker’s internal