Delilah
In the midnight of darkness and terror,When I would grope nearer to God,With my back to a record of errorAnd the highway of sin I have trod,There come to me shapes I would banish--The shapes of the deeds I have done;And I pray and I plead till they vanish--All vanish and leave me, save one.
That one with a smile like the splendorOf the sun in the middle-day skies--That one with a spell that is tender--That one with a dream in her eyes--Cometh close, in her rare Southern beauty,Her languor, her indolent grace;And my soul turns its back on its duty,To live in the light of her face.
She touches my cheek, and I quiver--I tremble with exquisite pains;She sighs--like an overcharged riverMy blood rushes on through my veins',She smiles--and in mad-tiger fashion,As a she-tiger fondles her own,I clasp her with fierceness and passion,And kiss her with shudder and groan.
Once more, in our love's sweet beginning,I put away God and the World;Once more, in the joys of our sinning,Are the hopes of eternity hurled.There is nothing my soul lacks or missesAs I clasp the dream shape to my breast;In the passion and pain of her kissesLife blooms to its richest and best.
O ghost of dead sin unrelenting,Go back to the dust and the sod!Too dear and too sweet for repenting,Ye stand between me and my God.If I, by the Throne, should behold you,Smiling up with those eyes loved so well,Close, close in my arms I would fold you,And drop with you down to sweet Hell!
Words in this poem
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Delilah is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Delilah, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/delilah.html, id L22156.
Form and metre
Delilah is 40 lines in 5 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCD terrorA · godB · errorA · trodB · banishC · doneD · vanishC · oneD
- 2 ABABCDCD splendorA · skiesB · tenderA · eyesB · beautyC · graceD · dutyC · faceD
- 3 ABABCDCD quiverA · painsB · riverA · veinsB · fashionC · ownD · passionC · groanD
- 4 ABABCDCD beginningA · worldB · sinningA · hurledB · missesC · breastD · kissesC · bestD
- 5 ABABCDCD unrelentingA · sodB · repentingA · godB · youC · wellD · youC · hellD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the midnight of darkness and terror, | 10 | ··/··/˘·/˘ |
| When I would grope nearer to God, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| With my back to a record of error | 10 | ·····˘/·/˘ |
| And the highway of sin I have trod, | 9 | ··/······ |
| There come to me shapes I would banish-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The shapes of the deeds I have done; | 8 | ········ |
| And I pray and I plead till they vanish-- | 10 | ········/˘ |
| All vanish and leave me, save one. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That one with a smile like the splendor | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Of the sun in the middle-day skies-- | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| That one with a spell that is tender-- | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| That one with a dream in her eyes-- | 8 | ········ |
| Cometh close, in her rare Southern beauty, | 10 | /˘····/˘/˘ |
| Her languor, her indolent grace; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| And my soul turns its back on its duty, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| To live in the light of her face. | 8 | ········ |
| She touches my cheek, and I quiver-- | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| I tremble with exquisite pains; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| She sighs--like an overcharged river | 10 | ····/˘/˘/˘ |
| My blood rushes on through my veins', | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| She smiles--and in mad-tiger fashion, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| As a she-tiger fondles her own, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| I clasp her with fierceness and passion, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And kiss her with shudder and groan. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Once more, in our love's sweet beginning, | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| I put away God and the World; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Once more, in the joys of our sinning, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Are the hopes of eternity hurled. | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·˘ |
| There is nothing my soul lacks or misses | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| As I clasp the dream shape to my breast; | 9 | ········· |
| In the passion and pain of her kisses | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Life blooms to its richest and best. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| O ghost of dead sin unrelenting, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Go back to the dust and the sod! | 8 | ········ |
| Too dear and too sweet for repenting, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Ye stand between me and my God. | 8 | ········ |
| If I, by the Throne, should behold you, | 9 | ······˘/· |
| Smiling up with those eyes loved so well, | 10 | /˘·····˘·· |
| Close, close in my arms I would fold you, | 9 | ········· |
| And drop with you down to sweet Hell! | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.