Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- How do you know this poem is about blindness? What if it were not about blindness at all? In that case, what would the "light" represent?
- What is your own particular "talent"? Do you think this talent could ever be threatened by external circumstances, like some kind of unlucky event or accident?
- Do you think this poem might just be an elaborate justification of laziness?
- Why do so many of the words in the poem have different meanings from the ones we're used to (like "spent," "account," "fondly," etc.)?
- How does this sonnet differ from those of Shakespeare? (You can learn about formal differences in "Form and Meter," but we want to know your own personal impressions.)
- Can you think of other artists or creative types who have succeeded in spite of seemingly insurmountable disadvantages? (For us, Beethoven and his deafness come to mind.)