Samson Agonistes (Version 2)

Samson Agonistes is a dramatic poem by John Milton based on the Old Testament story of Samson. It was first published in 1671 alongside Paradise Regained. The poem depicts Samson in the final day of his life, blinded ("eyeless in Gaza") and in captivity. He muses on his miserable condition and is then visited by friends from the tribe of Dan, by his father Manoa, his wife Delila and the giant Harapha. Finally he is ordered by the Philistines to publicly demonstrate his strength which leads to the dramatic end to his story and his life ("all passion spent"). At the time Milton wrote this work he had himself lost his sight and also witnessed the collapse of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth…