QUESTION OF ON HIS BLINDNESS: BIBLICAL CONTEXT IN ON HIS BLINDNESS BY MILTON

1. "When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide"-  Explain 

OR

What are the Biblical allusions mentioned in the sonnet "On His Blindness" by John Milton?

Answer:.    Poet John Milton became completely blind in 1655 and after three years, he composed this autobiographical Sonnet. Getting blind he became very sad and unhappy. According to the poet, though he had crossed half of his life, he had neither used his 'light' i.e  vision's availity to do do something exceptional with his God gifted talent nor spent his those days in the service of God. Now becoming blind, the world seemed to him totally dark and wide. Through the phase "one talent which is death to hide" the poet gave an allusion of Bible (Matthew 25). There in "The Parable of Talents", a Lord gave his three servants equal talents i.e. money before going out for a trip. Two of them used money in business and gained profit for their Lord. But the third servant did not use the money. When the Lord returned he became happy with the first two of them and got furious with the third servant and put him into the mouth of death. Here the poet compares 'talents' to the 'money' of the lord mentioned in the Bible. Like third servant he had not used his money i.e. talent given to him by Lord i.e. God and it was similar to death for the poet for not using that. So the poet thought that that unused talent was totally useless to him because he was blind. The poet became worried to think of the third servant. He thought that God would chide him for not using his talents when he would present himself in front of God after His returning. And so to get rid of this problem, he wished to serve God from his soul with his stored talent within himself. He did not want to get cast into the darkness that might be more fearful and painful than the suffering of his blindness.