Samson Agonistes

The poem uses the formal conventions of ancient Greek drama: There are characters who engage in dialogue, rising and falling action, a Chorus that comments on the events on stage, and the play is in the form of an agon, or declamatory philosophical debate. Stanza breaks occur when another character speaks.

However, because the poem was not intended to be performed, it lacks some of the logistical apparatus of plays. There are no separated scenes or acts. Their absence creates a compact, relentless drive, matching the intensity of Samson’s suffering. However, people have created productions for the stage—it is possible Milton’s warning against doing so is a way to protect himself from legal fallout.

The poem is in blank verse: It features meter, but no rhyme. The dominant meter is the iambic pentameter—five sets of unstressed, stressed syllables—a meter made most famous by Shakespeare. Occasionally, Milton clips the lines to six syllables, like when Samson announces, “The Sun to me is dark / And silent as the Moon” (Lines 86-87). The purposeful shifts in line length reinforce Samson’s jarring condition; however, the regular form implies an overarching design, supporting the poem’s discussion of