Publication year 1671
Genre Play, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Conflict, Gender Identity, Disability, Marriage, War, Trust & Doubt, Religion & Spirituality, Loyalty & Betrayal
Tags Poetry: Dramatic Poem, Narrative Poem, Dramatic Literature, British Literature, Restoration, Religion & Spirituality, Trauma & Abuse, World History, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction
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... Read Samson Agonistes Summary