With reference to the context, explain the following

With reference to the context, explain the following: They also serve who only stand and wait.

 

Ans. This line occurs at the end of the poem On His Blindness by John Milton, a great poet of the 17th century England.

This is the resolution of the conflict in the mind of the poet when he became blind, and could not serve God due to his blindness. When Milton became blind, "ere half my days”, he pondered deeply over the condition. He believed that the poetic gift that he possessed was given by God to serve Him, but he could not serve Him with that gift in his blind condition. So he became afraid that God might chide him for his non-performance of duty to Him. But his spirit of justice within his mind prompted the question if God exacts work from a blind man. But almost immediately his spirit of patience within himself asserted itself, and gave the answer to the question. The answer was that God does not need the work of any man or His own gifts to man. His state is kingly. Thousands of His angels post over land and ocean to serve him every moment. In case of a disabled man, like a blind man, it is only that he should bear His mild yoke without any protest. And he can serve God in that state of non performance of his duty, only by the exercise of his patience. So the poet resolves his conflict by concluding that those who stand and wait serve Him best.