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(Nehemiah ii. 1–5.)
’TIS sorrow, O King! of the heart, | |
| Not anguish of body or limb, | |
| That causes the hue from my cheek to depart, | |
| And mine eye to grow rayless and dim. | |
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| ’Tis the mem’ry of Salem afar, | 5 |
| Of Salem the city of God, | |
| In darkness now wrapped like the moon and the star | |
| When the tempests of night are abroad. | |
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| The walls of the city are razed, | |
| The gates of the city are burned; | 10 |
| And the temple of God, where my fathers have praised, | |
| To the ashes of ruin are turned. | |
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| The palace of kings is consumed, | |
| Where the timbrels were wont to resound; | |
| And the sepulchre domes, like the bones they entombed, | 15 |
| Are mould’ring away in the ground. | |
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| And the fugitive remnant that breathe | |
| In the land that their fellows have trod, | |
| Sit in sorrow and gloom; for a shadow like death | |
| O’erhangs every wretched abode. | 20 |
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| I have wept, I have fasted, and prayed | |
| To the great and terrible God, | |
| For this city of mine that in ruin is laid, | |
| And my brethren who smart by His rod. | |
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| And now I beseech thee, O King! | 25 |
| If favor I find in thy sight, | |
| That I may revisit my home, where the wing | |
| Of destruction is spread like the night. | |
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| And when I to Shushan return | |
| From rebuilding my forefathers’ tomb, | 30 |
| No more shall the heart of thy cup-bearer burn | |
| With those sorrows that melt and consume. | |
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