Oh, sweet o’er Judah’s distant hills
The wandering zephyr mourning sighs;
And sweetly gush the crystal rills,
And sparkle ’neath the tranquil skies:
And light waves, in the moon’s bright beam,
Along the blue lake’s beach deplore,
And Jordan rolls his hallowed stream
All silent by the lonely shore!

Oh, sad o’er Salem’s mournful walls
The mantling ivy’s tendrils cling:
There, lone, the solemn night-bird calls,
There folds the bat his blighting wing!
And o’er the temple’s crumbling stones
The loathsome serpent leads her young—
And dreary desolation moans,
While erst the songs of gladness rung!

For Judah’s sons in exile stray,
And Judah’s daughters weeping roam—
Far from their own loved land away—
Lorn captives in th’oppressor’s home:
And while their souls in anguish mourn,
And sigh to view the natal hearth—
Loud is the foeman’s taunting scorn,
And wild the godless heathen’s mirth!

O Thou, the Shepherd of Thy flock,
Who led’st Thy people through the wave;
And gav’st them water from the rock,
And bar’dst Thine arm in might to save:
Hear Thou the strain our hearts prolong—
List—list the suppliant captive’s cry—
Oh, when shall cease the mournful song—
Oh, when shall Judah’s tears be dry?

Charles William Everest
Babylon: A Poem, 1838