But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times past, what once I was, and what am now.
Oh! wherefore was my birth from heav'n foretold
Twice by an angel, who at last in sight
Of both my parents all in flames ascended
From off the altar, where an off'ring burn'd,
As in a fiery column charioting

His god-like presence, and from some great act
Or benefit reveal'd to Abraham's race?
Why was my breeding order'd and prescrib'd
As of a person separate to God,

Design'd for great exploits, if I must die

Betray'd, captiv'd, and both my eyes put out,
Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze,
To grind in brazen fetters under task

25

30

35

With this heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious strength
Put to the labour of a beast, debas'd
Lower than bondslave! Promise was that I
Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver;
Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke.
Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt
Divine prediction: what if all foretold

Had been fulfill'd but through mine own default,
Whom have I to complain of but myself?
Who this high gift of strength committed to me,
In what part lodg'd, how easily bereft me,

40

33 captiv'd] 'And captiv'd kings.' Ross's Mel Heliconium, p. 55. 'Israel captiv'd.' Cowley's Davideis, lib. ii. p. 84.

Under the seal of silence could not keep,
But weakly to a woman must reveal it,
O'ercome with importunity and tears.
O impotence of mind in body strong!
But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom? vast, unwieldy, burthensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall

By weakest subtleties, not made to rule,

hair.

But to subserve where wisdom bears command!
God, when he gave me strength, to show withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my
But peace, I must not quarrel with the will
Of highest dispensation, which herein

Haply had ends above my reach to know:
Suffices that to me strength is my bane,
And proves the source of all my miseries;
So many, and so huge, that each apart
Would ask a life to wail; but chief of all,
O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me's extinct,
And all her various objects of delight

Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd,
Inferior to the vilest now become

Of man or worm, the vilest here excel me;
They creep, yet see, I dark in light exposed
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong,

53 strength] Ovidii Met. xiii. 363.

'Tu vires sine mente geris.' Jortin.

50

55

60

65

70

75

Within doors, or without, still as a fool
In power of others, never in my own;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!

O first created beam, and thou great Word,
'Let there be light, and light was over all;'

Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree?
The sun to me is dark

And silent as the moon,

80

85

When she deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

Since light so necessary is to life,

90

And almost life itself, if it be true

That light is in the soul,

She all in every part; why was the sight
To such a tender ball as th' eye confin'd,

So obvious and so easy to be quench'd?
And not as feeling, through all parts diffus'd,
That she might look at will through every pore?
Then had I not been thus exil'd from light,

95

87 silent] Mediæque silentia lunæ.' Stat. Theb. ii. 58. tacito sub lumine Phœben.' Sil. Ital. xv. 566. Mr. Todd quotes Dante Inferno, c. 1. Mi ripingeva là dove 'l sol tace.' Mr. Dyce cites Shirley's Bird in a Cage, act iii. sc. 2. 'As silent as the moon.'

89 cave] Claudiani Cons. Stilickonis, iii. 268. cavernis.' Iliados Epitome, ed. Korten, ver. 875.

quantum vel in orbe mearet

Luna Cava!

'Concepit luna

As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And buried; but O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave,
Buried, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs,

But made hereby obnoxious more

To all the miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these; for with joint pace I hear
The tread of many feet steering this way?
Perhaps my enemies, who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps t' insult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.

CHOR. This, this is he; softly a while,

Let us not break in upon him;

O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffus'd,
With languish'd head unpropp'd,

As one past hope, abandon'd,

100

105

110

115

120

And by himself given over;

100 a living death] Consult the note, in Mr. Todd's edition, for the frequent use of this expression, from Petrarch, and Shakespeare, and the old English poets.

102 a moving grave] A living grave.' Sidney's Arcadia, p. 352. 'A walking grave.' Sir R. Howard's Vestal Virgin, 1665.

118 diffus'd] Sits diffus'd.' Heywood's Troy, p. 314. Mr. Thyer quotes Ovid ex Ponto, iii. 3. 7.

VOL. II.

. Fusaque erant toto languida membra toro.'

21

In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'er-worn and soil'd;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? can this be he,
That heroic, that renown'd,

Irresistible Samson? whom unarm'd

125

No strength of man or fiercest wild beast could

withstand;

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid,

Ran on imbattled armies clad in iron,

And, weaponless himself,

Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery

Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass, Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail Adamantean proof;

But safest he who stood aloof,

When insupportably his foot advanc'd,

130

135

In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,
Spurn'd them to death by troops. The bold Ascalonite
Fled from his lion ramp; old warriors turn'd
Their plated backs under his heel,

140

Or grov'ling soil'd their crested helmets in the dust.
Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,
The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,

A thousand fore-skins fell, the flower of Palestine
In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day:

145

133 Chalybean] Virg. Georg. i. 58. Ov. Fast. iv. 405. Neuton. 134 Adamantean] Johnson thinks this word peculiar to Milton. Perhaps he coined it from Ovid. Met. vii. 104. Todd,

136 insupportably] Spens. F. Q. i. vii. 11.

With huge force, and insupportable main.' Thyer.