Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint Comments

The phrase 'day brought back my night' is brilliant, and carries more freight than any other I know. There is the shock of the oxymoron: how can day bring night? But much more importantly, there are two ways in which day brings back Milton's night: first, emotionally-the 'emotional day' of the dream, in which his wife lives still, is replaced with the 'emotional night' of reality, in which she is dead. But also Milton was blind at the time, so that the 'visual day' of the dream, in which he could see, is replaced by the 'visual night' of reality, in which he is blind. All in five words. Astonishing.