| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept | | By Lord Byron |
| | (Psalm cxxxvii.)
WE sat down and wept by the waters | |
| Of Babel, and thought of the day | |
| When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters, | |
| Made Salem’s high places his prey, | |
| And ye, O her desolate daughters! | 5 |
| Were scatter’d all weeping away. | |
| |
| While sadly we gazed on the river | |
| Which roll’d on in freedom below, | |
| They demanded the song; but, oh, never | |
| That triumph the stranger shall know! | 10 |
| May this right hand be wither’d for ever, | |
| Ere it string our high harp for the foe! | |
| |
| On the willow that harp is suspended, | |
| O Salem! its sound should be free; | |
| And the hour when thy glories were ended | 15 |
| But left me that token of thee; | |
| And ne’er shall its soft tones be blended | |
| With the voice of the spoiler by me! | | | | |
|
|
