Samson Agonistes

Famed 17th-century English poet and pamphleteer John Milton published Samson Agonistes (a Greek word that can mean “struggle”) in 1671. The work is a dramatic poem and a tragic drama—though Milton announces that it isn’t for the stage. Milton’s work is informed by one episode in a story from the Old Testament, in which the superhuman hero Samson is betrayed by his wife Dalila, loses his strength, and is imprisoned by his foes, the Philistines. Milton drew on his personal life and his Christian beliefs for aspects of the poem as well: He, too, felt beset by enemies when the monarchy he opposed returned to England; and the Jewish Samson reflects Milton’s beliefs about free will. This last is one of the major themes of the dramatic poem, as are juxtapositions between greatness and meekness, and the inherent deceptiveness of women.

The prolific Milton composed other verse plays (such as Comus [1634]), sonnets, tracts about issues including divorce and censorship, and epic poems. However, Milton is most famous for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), which retells the story of Adam and Eve’s departure from the Garden of Eden and illustrates the battle between God and Lucifer that led to the creation of Hell and the recasting of Lucifer as Satan.