Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poems of Henry W. Longfellow. New York: A.L. Burt Co., 1901,
page 223.
Beware! The Israelite of old,
who tore
The lion in his path,--when, poor
and blind,
He saw the blessed light of heaven
no more,
Shorn of his noble strength and
forced to grind
In prison, and at last led forth to be
A pander to Philistine revelry,--
Upon the pillars of the temple laid
His desperate hands, and in its
overthrow
Destroyed himself, and with him
those who made
A cruel mockery of his sightless
woe;
The poor, blind slave, the scoff and
jest of all,
Expired, and thousands perished in
the fall!
There is a poor, blind Samson in
this land,
Shorn of his strength, and bound
in bonds of steel,
Who may, in some grim revel, raise
his hand,
And shake the pillars of this
Commonweal,
Till the vast Temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of wreci and rubbish
lies.