| |
| FALLEN is thy throne, O Israel! | |
| Silence is o’er thy plains; | |
| Thy dwellings all lie desolate, | |
| Thy children weep in chains. | |
| Where are the dews that fed thee | 5 |
| On Etham’s barren shore? | |
| That fire from heaven which led thee | |
| Now lights thy path no more. | |
| |
| Lord! thou didst love Jerusalem,— | |
| Once she was all thy own; | 10 |
| Her love thy fairest heritage, | |
| Her power thy glory’s throne: | |
| Till evil came, and blighted | |
| Thy long-loved olive-tree; | |
| And Salem’s shrines were lighted | 15 |
| For other gods than thee! | |
| |
| Then sunk the star of Solyma,— | |
| Then passed her glory’s day, | |
| Like heath that, in the wilderness, | |
| The wild wind whirls away. | 20 |
| Silent and waste her bowers, | |
| Where once the mighty trod, | |
| And sunk those guilty towers, | |
| While Baal reigned as god! | |
| |
| “Go,” said the Lord, “ye conquerors! | 25 |
| Steep in her blood your swords, | |
| And raze to earth her battlements, | |
| For they are not the Lord’s! | |
| Till Zion’s mournful daughter | |
| O’er kindred bones shall tread, | 30 |
| And Hinnom’s vale of slaughter | |
| Shall hide but half her dead!” | |
| |
