The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

375 But justly; I myself have brought them on,

  Sole author I, sole cause: if aught seem vile,

  As vile hath been my folly, who have profaned

  The mystery of God giv’n me under pledge

  Of vow, and have betrayed it to a woman,

  380 A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.

  This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,

  But warned by oft experience: did not she

  Of Timna first betray me, and reveal

  The secret wrested from me in her heighth

  385 Of nuptial love professed, carrying it straight

  To them who had corrupted her, my spies,

  And rivals? In this other was there found

  More faith? who also in her prime of love,

  Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold,

  390 Though offered only, by the scent conceived

  Her spurious first-born; treason against me?

  Thrice she assayed with flattering prayers and sighs,

  And amorous reproaches to win from me

  My capital secret, in what part my strength

  395 Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know:

  Thrice I deluded her, and turned to sport

  Her importunity, each time perceiving

  How openly, and with what impudence

  She purposed to betray me, and (which was worse

  400 Than undissembled hate) with what contempt

  She sought to make me traitor to myself;

  Yet the fourth time, when must’ring all her wiles,

  With blandished parleys, feminine assaults,

  Tongue-batteries, she surceased not day nor night

  405 To storm me over-watched, and wearied out.

  At times when men seek most repose and rest,

  I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart,

  Who with a grain of manhood well resolved

  Might easily have shook off all her snares:

  410 But foul effeminacy held me yoked

  Her bond-slave; O indignity, O blot

  To honour and religion! servile mind

  Rewarded well with servile punishment!

  The base degree to which I now am fall’n,

  415 These rags, this grinding, is not yet so base

  As was my former servitude, ignoble,

  Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,

  True slavery, and that blindness worse than this,

  That saw not how degenerately I served.

  420 Manoa. I cannot praise thy marriage choices, son,

  Rather approved them not; but thou didst plead

  Divine impulsion prompting how thou might’st

  Find some occasion to infest our foes.

  I state not that; this I am sure; our foes

  425 Found soon occasion thereby to make thee

  Their captive, and their triumph; thou the sooner

  Temptation found’st, or over-potent charms

  To violate the sacred trust of silence

  Deposited within thee; which to have kept

  430 Tacit, was in thy power; true; and thou bear’st

  Enough, and more the burden of that fault;

  Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying

  That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains:

  This day the Philistines a popular feast

  435 Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim

  Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud

  To Dagon, as their god who hath delivered

  Thee Samson bound and blind into their hands,

  Them out of thine, who slew’st them many a slain.

  440 So Dagon shall be magnified, and God,

  Besides whom is no God, compared with idols,

  Disglorified, blasphemed, and had in scorn

  By th’ idolatrous rout amidst their wine;

  Which to have come to pass by means of thee,

  445 Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,

  Of all reproach the most with shame that ever

  Could have befall’n thee and thy father’s house.

  Samson. Father, I do acknowledge and confess

  That I this honour, I this pomp have brought

  450 To Dagon, and advanced his praises high

  Among the heathen round; to God have brought

  Dishonour, obloquy, and oped the mouths

  Of idolists, and atheists; have brought scandal

  To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt

  455 In feeble hearts, propense enough before

  To waver, or fall off and join with idols;

  Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow,

  The anguish of my soul, that suffers not

  Mine eye to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest.

  460 This only hope relieves me, that the strife

  With me hath end; all the contest is now

  ’Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presumed,

  Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,

  His deity comparing and preferring

  465 Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,

  Will not connive, or linger, thus provoked,

  But will arise and his great name assert:

  Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive

  Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him

  470 Of all these boasted trophies won on me,

  And with confusion blank his worshippers.

  Manoa. With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words

  I as a prophecy receive: for God,

  Nothing more certain, will not long defer

  475 To vindicate the glory of his name

  Against all competition, nor will long

  Endure it, doubtful whether God be Lord,

  Or Dagon. But for thee what shall be done?

  Thou must not in the meanwhile here forgot

  480 Lie in this miserable loathsome plight

  Neglected. I already have made way

  To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat

  About thy ransom: well they may by this

  Have satisfied their utmost of revenge

  485 By pains and slaveries, worse than death inflicted

  On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.

  Samson. Spare that proposal, father, spare the trouble

  Of that solicitation; let me here,

  As I deserve, pay on my punishment;

  490 And expiate, if possible, my crime,

  Shameful garrulity. To have revealed

  Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,

  How heinous had the fact been, how deserving

  Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded

  495 All friendship, and avoided as a blab,

  The mark of fool set on his front?

  But I God’s counsel have not kept, his holy secret

  Presumptuously have published, impiously,

  Weakly at least, and shamefully: a sin

  500 That Gentiles in their parables condemn

  To their abyss and horrid pains confined.

  Manoa. Be penitent and for thy fault contrite,

  But act not in thy own affliction, son;

  Repent the sin, but if the punishment

  505 Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids;

  Or th’ execution leave to high disposal,

  And let another hand, not thine, exact

  Thy penal forfeit from thyself; perhaps

  God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;

  510 Who evermore approves and more accepts

  (Best pleased with humble and filial submission)

  Him who imploring mercy sues for life,

  Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due;

  Which argues over-just, and self-displeased

  515 For self-offence, more than for God offended.

  Reject not then what offered means, who knows

  But God hath set before us, to return thee

  Home to thy country and his sacred hou
se,

  Where thou may’st bring thy off’rings, to avert

  520 His further ire, with prayers and vows renewed.

  Samson. His pardon I implore; but as for life,

  To what end should I seek it? when in strength

  All mortals I excelled, and great in hopes

  With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts

  525 Of birth from Heav’n foretold and high explóits,

  Full of divine instinct, after some proof

  Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond

  The sons of Anak, famous now and blazed,

  Fearless of danger, like a petty god

  530 I walked about admired of all and dreaded

  On hostile ground, none daring my affront.

  Then swoll’n with pride into the snare I fell

  Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,

  Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life;

  535 At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge

  Of all my strength in the lascivious lap

  Of a deceitful concubine who shore me

  Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,

  Then turned me out ridiculous, despoiled,

  540 Shav’n, and disarmed among my enemies.

  Chorus. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,

  Which many a famous warrior overturns,

  Thou couldst repress, nor did the dancing ruby

  Sparkling, outpoured, the flavour, or the smell,

  545 Or taste that cheers the heart of gods and men,

  Allure thee from the cool crystálline stream.

  Samson. Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed

  Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure

  With touch ethereal of heaven’s fiery rod

  550 I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying

  Thirst, and refreshed; nor envied them the grape

  Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.

  Chorus. O madness, to think use of strongest wines

  And strongest drinks our chief support of health,

  555 When God with these forbidd’n made choice to rear

  His mighty champion, strong above compare,

  Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

  Samson. But what availed this temperance, not complete

  Against another object more enticing?

  560 What boots it at one gate to make defence,

  And at another to let in the foe

  Effeminately vanquished? by which means,

  Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonoured, quelled,

  To what can I be useful, wherein serve

  565 My nation, and the work from Heav’n imposed,

  But to sit idle on the household hearth,

  A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,

  Or pitied object, these redundant locks

  Robustious to no purpose clust’ring down,

  570 Vain monument of strength; till length of years

  And sedentary numbness craze my limbs

  To a contemptible old age obscure.

  Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,

  Till vermin or the draff of servile food

  575 Consume me, and oft-invocated death

  Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

  Manoa. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift

  Which was expressly giv’n thee to annoy them?

  Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,

  580 Inglorious, unemployed, with age outworn.

  But God who caused a fountain at thy prayer

  From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay

  After the brunt of battle, can as easy

  Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,

  585 Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast;

  And I persuade me so; why else this strength

  Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?

  His might continues in thee not for naught,

  Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

  590 Samson. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend,

  That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light,

  Nor th’ other light of life continue long,

  But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:

  So much I feel my genial spirits droop,

  595 My hopes all flat, nature within me seems

  In all her functions weary of herself;

  My race of glory run, and race of shame,

  And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

  Manoa. Believe not these suggestions which proceed

  600 From anguish of the mind and humours black,

  That mingle with thy fancy. I however

  Must not omit a father’s timely care

  To prosecute the means of thy deliverance

  By ransom or how else: meanwhile be calm,

  605 And healing words from these thy friends admit.

  Samson. O that torment should not be confined

  To the body’s wounds and sores

  With maladies innumerable

  In heart, head, breast, and reins;

  610 But must secret passage find

  To th’ inmost mind,

  There exercise all his fierce accidents,

  And on her purest spirits prey,

  As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

  615 With answerable pains, but more intense,

  Though void of corporal sense.

  My griefs not only pain me

  As a ling’ring disease,

  But finding no redress, ferment and rage,

  620 Nor less than wounds immedicable

  Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

  To black mortification.

  Thoughts my tormentors armed with deadly stings

  Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

  625 Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

  Dire inflammation which no cooling herb

  Or med’cinal liquor can assuage,

  Nor breath of vernal air from snowy alp.

  Sleep hath forsook and giv’n me o’er

  630 To death’s benumbing opium as my only cure.

  Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

  And sense of Heav’n’s desertion.

  I was his nursling once and choice delight,

  His destined from the womb,

  635 Promised by Heavenly message twice descending.

  Under his special eye

  Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain;

  He led me on to mightiest deeds

  Above the nerve of mortal arm

  640 Against the uncircumcised, our enemies.

  But now hath cast me off as never known,

  And to those cruel enemies,

  Whom I by his appointment had provoked,

  Left me all helpless with th’ irreparable loss

  645 Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated

  The subject of their cruelty, or scorn.

  Nor am I in the list of them that hope;

  Hopeless are all my evils, all remédiless;

  This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,

  650 No long petition, speedy death,

  The close of all my miseries, and the balm.

  Chorus. Many are the sayings of the wise

  In ancient and in modern books enrolled;

  Extolling patience as the truest fortitude;

  655 And to the bearing well of all calamities,

  All chances incident to man’s frail life;

  Consolatories writ

  With studied argument, and much persuasion sought,

  Lenient of grief and anxious thought;

  660 But with th’ afflicted in his pangs their sound

  Little prevails, or rather seems a tune,

  Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,

  Unless he feel within

  Some source of consolation from above;

  665 Secret refreshing
s, that repair his strength,

  And fainting spirits uphold.

  God of our fathers, what is man!

  That thou towards him with hand so various,

  Or might I say contrarious,

  670 Temper’st thy providence through his short course,

  Not evenly, as thou rul’st

  The angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,

  Irrational and brute.

  Nor do I name of men the common rout,

  675 That wand’ring loose about

  Grow up and perish, as the summer fly,

  Heads without name, no more remembered;

  But such as thou hast solemnly elected,

  With gifts and graces eminently adorned

  680 To some great work, thy glory,

  And people’s safety, which in part they effect:

  Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft

  Amidst their heighth of noon,

  Changest thy countenance, and thy hand with no regard

  685 Of highest favours past

  From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

  Nor only dost degrade them, or remit

  To life obscured, which were a fair dismission,

  But throw’st them lower than thou didst exalt them high,

  690 Unseemly falls in human eye,

  Too grievous for the trespass or omission;

  Oft leav’st them to the hostile sword

  Of heathen and profane, their carcasses

  To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived:

  695 Or to th’ unjust tribunals, under change of times,

  And condemnation of the ingrateful multitude.

  If these they ’scape, perhaps in poverty

  With sickness and disease thou bow’st them down,

  Painful diseases and deformed,

  700 In crude old age;

  Though not disordinate, yet causeless suff ’ring

  The punishment of dissolute days; in fine,

  Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,

  For oft alike, both come to evil end.

  705 So deal not with this once thy glorious champion,

  The image of thy strength, and mighty minister.

  What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already?

  Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn

  His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

  710 But who is this, what thing of sea or land?

  Female of sex it seems,

  That so bedecked, ornate, and gay,

  Comes this way sailing

  Like a stately ship

  715 Of Tarsus, bound for th’ isles

  Of Javan or Gadier

  With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

  Sails filled, and streamers waving,

  Courted by all the winds that hold them play,

  720 An amber scent of odorous perfume

  Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;

  Some rich Philistian matron she may seem,

  And now at nearer view, no other certain