DELILAH, a poem

EVERMORE I hear my name,
     Blared upon the cruel street,
     Echoed in my close retreat,
Breathing fame, and branding shame:
Evermore it mocks my dream.
     Though I wear the purple fine—
     All the pomp of Palestine—
Ravens over Gaza scream:
               "Delilah!"

And when most I should be gay
     For my triumph,—lo! my sight
     Darkens in another's night,
And accusing voices say:
"Guile may lightly vanquish odds;
     But though mortals pay the price
     And accept the sacrifice,
Treason's hateful to the gods,
               Delilah!"

Samson!—bowing reverent knee
     Unto Israel's God and thine—
     Did'st thou think I loved not mine?
Unto him I yielded thee!
Yet—O mighty in thy fall!—
     Groping still thy God to find,
     Bond and bound, bereft and blind,—
Happier thou than she they call
               Delilah!

"Delilah" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Independent (28 February 1901), Mine and Thine (1904) and Poems (1916) Volume II.