Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BY BABEL'S STREAMS, by HENRY PEREIRA MENDES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BY BABEL'S STREAMS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: By babel's streams we sat, we wept
Last Line: If we forget thy glory.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mendes, H. Pereira
Subject(s): Bible; Israel; Jews; Judaism


I

BY Babel's streams we sat, we wept,
Rememb'ring Zion's fallen state:
We hung the harp whose music slept
On willows 'neath whose solemn shade
We talked of Zion's glory.

II

The captor cruel mocked the sigh
And bade us sing of Zion's songs.
With breaking hearts we made reply
"To Zion's land alone belongs
The sounds of Zion's glory."

III

How can we from the harp-string wake
In stranger's land the sacred lay?
Each harp-string, aye, our hearts would break
Before our fingers would obey,
For lost is Zion's glory.

IV

O Salem! If thy sacred land
Forgotten be, if false we prove
May memory fail,—may palsied hand
And dastard tongues refuse to move,
If we forget thy glory.





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