Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | III. Adversity | | Samson on His Blindness | | John Milton (1608–1674) |
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O LOSS of sight, of thee I must complain! | |
| Blind among enemies, O, worse than chains, | |
| Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! | |
| Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, | |
| And all her various objects of delight | 5 |
| Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased. | |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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 moon, | |
| Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse, | 15 |
| Without all hope of day! | | | | |
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