My darling,
Much better than quarreling
Is this: I will stroke your hair,
Swear
Devotion
To you while you’ve no notion
(Have you?) of whose side I’m on.
Yawn
My pretty;
Sleep on my lap. I pity
Your great surprise when you wake.
Take
Care, dumb thing.
Out of the strong came something.
Sweet fool, you yielded to me
Key
Expertise
That I might put you at ease
And take from you that which God
[prod]
Had conferred
On you. Soon the deed’s occurred —
Come take the hair of this mutt!
Cut!
The W3 prompt for this week was to write an ekphrastic poem about the Rubens’ painting of Samson and Delilah.
The more I looked at the painting, the more I disliked Delilah. She’s so false. What did Samson see in her? Well, I think that’s pretty clear in the painting, too.
This is an Irish form I’ve used before: deibide baise fri toin. Syllable count for each quatrain: 3-7-7-1. Rhyme scheme: aabb. The first two lines rhyme on two syllables, and the last two rhyme on one.
The poet of the week gave an additional challenge of including a line from Samson’s riddle: “Out of the strong came something sweet.”
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
I do like this form – I don’t think I have seen before, and I enjoyed your take on the prompt from Delilah
💞Suzanne
Thanks, Suzanne! I find the hardest part is ending a stanza on a one syllable word, but I’m learning how to make it work.
Well ✅
Lovely response to the prompt, Sally. It’s also a new format. I’ll have to look it up and practice in my spare time.
Delilah is mostly disliked. No one loves a traitor. And Samson was just…well, a typical misguided man. 🤪 I enjoyed your take. 🙏
Thank you! I have to say this is one of my least favorite stories because I really don’t like any of the characters. Delilah is awful. Samson is dumb and doesn’t think with his head.
Lol… You’re right. Many modern day parallels. And it seems like people wanted to see them both fail at this romance . For different reasons of course. Delilah bowed to pressure and Samson was an idiot
Sally I love the enjambment and this form works so very well with this prompt!
I didn’t know what enjambment was until David made a similar comment months ago and I looked it up. I think I just do it so I can tell the story and it seems to work 🙂
Wow- harsh!
Your poem portrays the cunning manipulation of Delilah perfectly, Sally…
~David
Isn’t she awful? Yet, Rubens makes her look pretty and almost caring. She can’t fool me.
heheheheheheh….
Hi, Sally! 👋🏻
I just wanna let you know that this week’s W3 prompt, hosted by the wonderful Lesley Scoble, is now live:
Enjoy! 💖
Much love,
David
So well expressed in this fascinating poetry form 💖
Wonderful job personifying this painting and describing the action, Sally!