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