Assonance is the resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words, arising particularly from the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels. e.g. “consider how my light”, “half my days in this dark”, “that one talent which is death”, “Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent”, “therewith my Maker, and present” etc.

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The poem On His Blindness is a religious poem in which the poet is talking about serving God. According to him, he used to serve God by using the talent of writing the poetry for people. But now, he has turned blind and cannot use his talent. This is why he cannot serve Him now. This makes him sad.

However he soon realises that God does not need his talent. Instead, those who bear the burden which they have also serve him. He cites the example of angels to prove this. According to him, there are thousands of angels which move with light speed over the lands and oceans to fulfil the orders of God.

However, there are some other angels who just stand and wait for His order. They also serve God by just standing. Similarly, poet assumes that he is serving God by bearing the troubles of his blindness and thus he feel better and hopeful.

The whole poem is thus about pleasing and serving God. It shows poet’s full belief on God.

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The tone of On His Blindness is varying throughout the poem. In the beginning the tone seems to be demoralising and depressing as the poet seems to be remorseful because of his blindness. He is unable to use his talent of writing poetry and that makes him sad.

In the second stanza, the tone changes to doubtful as the poet begins to think if God is really angry with him. In the third stanza, the tone is hopeful and finally the poem becomes happy.

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