| |
| THE HARPS hung up in Babylon, | |
| Their loosened strings rang on, sang on, | |
| And cast their murmurs forth upon | |
| The roll and roar of Babylon: | |
| “Forget me, Lord, if I forget | 5 |
| Jerusalem for Babylon, | |
| If I forget the vision set | |
| High as the head of Lebanon | |
| Is lifted over Syria yet, | |
| If I forget and bow me down | 10 |
| To brutish gods of Babylon.” | |
| |
| Two rivers to each other run | |
| In the very midst of Babylon, | |
| And swifter than their current fleets | |
| The restless river of the streets | 15 |
| Of Babylon, of Babylon, | |
| And Babylon’s towers smite the sky, | |
| But higher reeks to God most high | |
| The smoke of her iniquity: | |
| “But oh, betwixt the green and blue | 20 |
| To walk the hills that once we knew | |
| When you were pure and I was true,”— | |
| So rang the harps in Babylon— | |
| “Or ere along the roads of stone | |
| Had led us captive one by one | 25 |
| The subtle gods of Babylon.” | |
| |
| The harps hung up in Babylon | |
| Hung silent till the prophet dawn, | |
| When Judah’s feet the highway burned | |
| Back to the holy hills returned, | 30 |
| And shook their dust on Babylon. | |
| In Zion’s halls the wild harps rang, | |
| To Zion’s walls their smitten clang, | |
| And lo! of Babylon they sang, | |
| They only sang of Babylon: | 35 |
| “Jehovah, round whose throne of awe | |
| The vassal stars their orbits draw | |
| Within the circle of Thy law, | |
| Canst thou make nothing what is done, | |
| Or cause Thy servant to be one | 40 |
| That has not been in Babylon, | |
| That has not known the power and pain | |
| Of life poured out like driven rain? | |
| I will go down and find again | |
| My soul that’s lost in Babylon.” | 45 |
| |
