<P> "When I Consider How My Light is Spent" is one of the best known of the sonnets of John Milton (d . 1674). The last three lines (concluding with "They also serve who only stand and wait .") are particularly well known, though rarely quoted in context . </P> <P> The sonnet was first published in Milton's 1673 Poems . In his autograph notebook (known as the "Trinity Manuscript" from its location in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge), Milton gave the sonnet the number 19, but in the published book it was numbered 16 (see Kelley, 1956; Revard, 2009, p. 569), so both numbers are in use for it . It is popularly given the title On His Blindness, but there is no evidence that Milton used this title; it was assigned a century later by Thomas Newton in his 1761 edition of Milton's poetry, as was commonly done at the time by editors of posthumous collections (Ferry, 1996, p. 18). </P>

Who said they also serve who stand and wait