Samson

The Blinded Samson (1912) by Lovis Corinth

1

The LORD is a living dread

whose absence in Shiloh

is more potent than his presence.

Notwithstanding the regenerative 

Spirit whose intimate impulse is felt

by the inner man, no angelic return 

or godly descent precedes 

the rousing motions of body 

and temple torn joint by joint.

No use for Delphic oracle or word 

from Jerusalem.

2

Absorbed by the moon,

the sun gives up its light,

the stars their sweetness,

and the sky is dull and blind.

Among the ruined bones,

a god manqué, the dread messiah,

lies sublimely iconoclastic, his

twelfth labour completed.