Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PSALM 137, by SIDNEY GODOLPHIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PSALM 137, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: As by the rivers we lay down
Last Line: And none shall pity their despair.


As by the rivers we lay down
Which wash the walls of Babylon,
There we our inward souls felt grief,
Changing to mourning all relief,
Infecting by our sad despair
The flowery field, the streams, and air:
As we on Syon meditate
Our ruin'd country's captive state,
Our instruments of melody
Disused, neglected, hanging by --
Then, even then, our scornful foes,
The proud inflictors of our woes,
Deny us freedom of our groans
And bid us swallow all our moans,
Command from our hoarse voice an air
Of joy in this our sad despair.
Ah! can we teach our tears to flow
Inwards, and hide in smiles our woe?
Shall our lov'd harp and voice now be
The hated marks of slavery?
O Solymas, ye holy towers,
Ye rivers, fields, ye shades of ours,
Wither my hand, my voice be dry
When I do lose your memory:
When ever I one joy put on
During your desolation.
Thou Babylon, which now dost boast
All bowels of compassion lost,
Though careless when we do complain
Know thou hast yet a sense for pain.
Thrice happy who exacts from thee
The measure of our misery:
How thy swol'n rivers then will rise,
When thou pay'st back unto our eyes
The floods of tears which they have shed
And all the streams which we have bled!
Then will Euphrates purpled run
With thy blood, cruel Babylon,
Thy children's cries will fill the air
And none shall pity their despair.





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