Page:The Poems of William Blake (Shepherd, 1887).djvu/102

"enemy! I will go mad, and tear my crisped
"hair; I'll run about, and pierce the ears o' th'
"gods! O Samson, hold me not; thou lovest
"me not! Look not upon me with those deathful
"eyes! Thou wouldst my death, and death
"approaches fast."—Thus, in false tears, she
bathed his feet, and thus she day by day oppressed
his soul: he seemed a mountain, his brow among
the clouds; she seemed a silver stream, his feet
embracing. Dark thoughts rolled to and fro in
his mind, like thunder-clouds troubling the sky;
his visage was troubled; his soul was distressed.
"Though I should tell her all my heart, what can
"I fear? Though I should tell this secret of my
"birth, the utmost may be warded off as well when
"told as now." She saw him moved, and thus
resumes her wiles: "Samson, I'm thine; do with
"me what thou wilt; my friends are enemies; my
"life is death; I am a traitor to my nation, and
"despised; my joy is given into the hands of him
"who hates me, using deceit to the wife of his
"bosom. Thrice hast thou mocked me and grieved
"my soul. Didst thou not tell me with green
"withs to bind thy nervous arms, and after that,
"when I had found thy falsehood, with new ropes
"to bind thee fast? I knew thou didst but mock
"me. Alas, when in thy sleep I bound thee with
"them to try thy truth, I cried, The Philistines be
"upon thee, Samson! Then did Suspicion wake