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Blindness in poetry is usually discussed from the perspective of someone who is dealing with losing their sight or who has already lost it completely. These poems contend with the implications of becoming blind and what the newly blind person is going to do to continue living their life happily (and if that is even possible).
A famous John Milton poem is the most commonly cited example. He demonstrates what many people contend with as they age–a loss of sight. The poet turns to God as a source of comfort. But, in other poems, the authors have far more trouble reconciling what’s happening to them and their future with the life they lived in the past.
Often, these poems are deeply sad. But, that’s not always the case. Other poems that focus on blindness are filled with courage, determination, and resilience in the face of what is usually a traumatic life change.
‘All But Blind’, a poem written by the English poet Walter de la Mare, is image-rich and symbolic in meaning. This poem talks about the inner blindness of humans.
All but blind
In his chambered hole,
Gropes for worms
The four-clawed mole.
Milton’s ‘On His Blindness’ reflects on loss and faith, concluding that solace is in serving God by patiently bearing life’s burdens.
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
‘The Country of the Blind’ explores the divide between those enlightened by truth and a society blinded by its denial of the divine.
Hard light bathed them-a whole nation of eyeless men,
Dark bipeds not aware how they were maimed. A long
Process, clearly, a slow curse,
Drained through centuries, left them thus.
‘Bahnhofstrasse’ by James Joyce recalls a moment of physical discomfort that’s ingrained itself in the mind of the speaker as being exemplary of the woes inherent to old age.
The eyes that mock me sign the way
Whereto I pass at eve of day.
Grey way whose violet signals are
The trysting and the twining star.
‘Unholy Sonnet 13’ appears in the modern American poet Mark Jarman’s award-winning poetry collection Questions for Ecclesiastes (1997). This sonnet is about a matured speaker’s belief in God and the miraculous beauty of nature.
Drunk on the Umbrian hills at dusk and drunk
On one pink cloud that stood beside the moon,
Drunk on the moon, a marble smile, and drunk,
Two young Americans, on one another,
‘On Her Blindness’ by Adam Thorpe is a loving poem dedicated to the poet’s mother. It explores how lost sight can impact one’s life and the frustration of not being understood.
My mother could not bear being blind,
to be honest. One shouldn’t say it.
One should hide the fact that catastrophic
handicaps are hell; one tends to hear,
‘Italia Mia’ by Petrarch is a passionate plea for Italy’s revival, lamenting its suffering and urging virtuous leadership for peace and prosperity.
My Italy, although talking does not serve to heal the mortal wounds
which I see so thick on your fair body, it pleases me at least that
my sighs are such as the Tiber hopes for, and the Arno, and the Po,
where I now sit heavy with grief. Ruler of heaven, I ask that the
‘Sonnet 23: Methought I saw my late espoused saint’ shares a beatific but ultimately bittersweet vision of a widower’s late wife.
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,
Rescu'd from death by force, though pale and faint.
Written at a time when his beloved Mary Unwin was experiencing a prolonged period of ill-health, ‘My Mary’ is a poem in which William Cowper expresses his deep love for Mary while also feeling guilt and despair over her illnesses.
THE twentieth year is wellnigh past
Since first our sky was overcast;
Ah, would that this might be the last!
My Mary!
‘Sonnet 137,’ also known as ‘Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,’ is about the speaker’s love for the Dark Lady. It condemns love for misleading the speaker about her.
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
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