Milton’s Sonnet is beautiful and haunting as well as having an acute sense of loss. I could not help but noticing that at least three of his five principles could be applied. He is preoccupied with time in this sonnet in that he is dreaming which places him out of the realm of conventional time and space. It is also evident with the visit of his dead wife the past comes to the present. He describes his wife as being virginal as “washed from spot of child-bed taint”, this would lend to the beginning of their relationship, when they first met. This part of the Sonnet brought to mind Milton’s desire for seeming compatibility and companionship in a marriage which he places above sex. I was struck most by the last line, ” I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.” I could feel Milton’s frustration and his loss when he wakes at the best, most desired part of his dream and his beloved wife is gone. He is thrust unpleasantly back into the present and reality. It seems to me when he says ” and day brought back my night” as if he perhaps he lay in bed for awhile trying to get his dream back, but was unable to do so, before the daylight arrived. There seems as if there is a sense of delay in that passage. From my own experience, when I wake up from a good dream I try to go back to it for a few minutes before I either go into another, or just get up.
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