Milton's Sonnet 14

John Milton wrote his “Sonnet 14” in order to comfort his friend George Thomason and his children after his Catherine’s death. In trying to give the family comfort and hope, he writes of how Catherine has not ended but moved on to a better place. He uses addresses Catherine herself, employs Biblical allusions, and uses grammar and diction to manipulate time in the poem in order to convey the message of Catherine’s continued existence.
The sonnet is written in the second person voice. This is significant, however, in that the addressee is deceased. Milton does not say, “she was” or “she did,” as one may expect in a poem about a dead woman; instead Milton speaks directly to Catherine, telling her of her virtues and how they have followed her to heaven and will bring her eternal salvation. While Milton could have said these things using a third person point of view, his speaking to Catherine is a way of making the entire poem a constant reminder that she hasn’t ceased to be.
The Biblical allusions in the poem send the message that Catherine not only still lives, but that only now does she truly live. Milton states that she has gone “to dwell with God” and that her “Works and Alms and all…[her] good Endeavour” will “speak the truth…/Before the Judge,” thus granting her everlasting bliss in heaven. These references remind the reader, meant to be Milton’s friend Thomason, of what God has done and will do for Catherine because of her faith and love.
Milton also uses diction and elements of grammar to manipulate time within the sonnet. He begins in past tense, the same way in which Thomason is probably thinking of his late wife, but at the end, Milton uses the present tense not only to speak of the present, but also of Catherine’s future in heaven. This ends the sonnet on a hopeful, uplifting note rather than in a tone of mourning or simple remembrance. Also, Milton uses such words as dwell, for ever, and immortal to bring into the reader’s mind thoughts of eternal life rather than thinking of death as a termination of one’s existence.
These formal elements used by Milton in his “Sonnet 14” bring more power to his message of comfort for his friends than the literal meaning alone could. By addressing Catherine as a living person, referencing the Bible’s words of life after death, and by using diction and grammar to enforce the sense of endlessness, Milton is able to remind George Thomason that Catherine is not simply dead; she is in heaven and will be forever, thus effectively offering consolation in the form of a sonnet.