Paradise Lost: The Arguments - WW Norton & Company

Samson Agonistes 23
A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze, 6
Or pitied object; these redundant locks,
Robustious 7 to no purpose, clustering down,
Vain monument of strength; till length of years 570
And sedentary numbness craze 8 my limbs
To a contemptible old age obscure.
Here rather let me drudge, and earn my bread,
Till vermin, or the draff 9 of servile food,
Consume me, and oft-invocated death 575
Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.
manoa. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift
Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?
Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,
Inglorious, unemployed, with age outworn. 580
But God, who caused a fountain at thy prayer
From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay
After the brunt of battle, 1 can as easy
Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast. 585
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.
samson. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend, 590
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 2 droop,
My hopes all flat. Nature within me seems 595
In all her functions weary of herself ;
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
6. Spectacle.
7. Strong. “Redundant”: in its Latin sense, “flowing”; in the English sense, “unnecessary” or “unemployed.”
8. Weaken, twist.
9. Garbage given to slaves as food.
1. The story of how Samson, with divine aid, created a spring in the desert after the battle with the ass’s
jawbone is told in Judges 15.18–19.
2. Life forces, vital energy.