Methought I Saw

Methought I Saw

By: John Milton

The sonnet "Methought I Saw" by John Milton, is a sonnet that reflects Milton's overall wanting to see his beloved wife of two years Katherine Woodcock. Although Milton is blind, he is having constant visionary dreams of his wife that don't quite show her face but often reflect a sense of beauty. In my opinion, the sestet of the sonnet's rhyme scheme was changed from the traditional Italian sestet of cdecde to cdcdcd. This change was made so Milton could emphasize the delineation of his fantasy, and the reality of the beauty and goodness of his spouse.

Compared to the old days of Shakespearean sonnets, which bared rhyme schemes that had this look ababcdcbefefgg (which is a form of the Shakespearean Sonnet). Milton trusted a different rhyme scheme that went abbaabbacdcdcd (which is a form of the Italian sonnet), than that of Shakespeare. Another abnormality of Milton's rhyme scheme was that he didn't end the sonnet with a couplet like most of the poets in Shakespeare's time. Instead he chose to put a twist in his ending, which would leave the reader with a sense of surprise. For example:

But O, as to embrace me she inclined,

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night(13-14)

These two lines are the last lines of the sonnet. For the first twelve lines of the sonnet Milton has made the reader feel like they are witnessing a beautiful love story with a soon to be happy ending. But, instead he decides the best way to close is to leave the reader on the edge of their seat wondering what just happened.