When I Consider How My Light Is Spent

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July 19, 2010 When I consider how my light is spent John Milton 1608-1674 Sonnet XIX Theme and Speaker John Milton’s poem, “When I consider how my light is spent” uses his speaker to provide a variety of metaphors while including themes of religion, quilt, and beliefs to create an allusion. In the beginning the speaker is referring to “light is spent” to when John Milton completely uses his sight. Then he uses the term “ere” which means half. “ere half my days” meaning Milton went blind at half the age he would expect to live. The speaker further uses a metaphor and theme of religion from the New Testament in order to give the reader a reference to the meaning of “talents’. In the Parable of the talents, Mathew 25:14 three servants are given talents (money) by a master who is heading off for a long journey. One servant is given five talents, the second servant is given two talents, and the third servant is given one talent. Each of the servant’s is required to invest the talents and gain profits while the master is gone. Upon the master’s return, he rewards the first and second talent for doubling their profits, and finds out the third servant did not gain any profits. This servant instead buried the money out in the desert for fear of losing it, and returned only the one talent to his master that he originally received. The master was furious with the third servant, and he took his only talent away, then ordered him to darkness and weeping with gnashing of teeth to death. In line three of Milton’s poem, “And that one talent which is death to hide”. The speaker feels guilty that he did not use his talent productively when he still had his vision. The speaker implies that his writing skills are his God-given talent and that because he did not use this trade fully, that he may have consequences to pay. And, because of his great skills to

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