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More about the Poet John Milton (1608-1674) was blind when he composed his greatest poetry. In so doing, Youn resituates Sonnet 19 as a vital part of a tradition of feminine creativity, discovering Milton’s potential significance for poets negotiating questions of gender and poetic making. On his Blindness Sonnet 19 by John Milton 1. Devouring Time blunt thou the lions paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood, Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tigers jaws, And burn the. Youn transforms Milton’s sonnet, merging the ordeal of her infertility with Milton’s experience of blindness. In fact the change has already occurred, in 10, 13, and 15 before it is repeated here. Monica Youn’s Blackacre meditates on Sonnet 19’s end rhymes and uses the legal term for hypothetical land, “blackacre,” as a metaphor for articulating the history of the female body as the unspoken transmitter of the masculinist power structure enshrined in law. The two declarations of love are important, because some commentators claim that sonnet 20 marks a change of direction in the poets attitude to the young man. This article examines how a contemporary female poet’s strong reading of Milton’s Sonnet 19 demonstrates an extensive poetic engagement with what she takes to be Milton’s autobiographical expression of his reaction to blindness. While some scholars have claimed that Milton blocks feminine creativity, others have characterized his attitude toward gender as ambivalent and his self-representation as even possessing gender fluidity.