Mountain Spring and Other Poems

<h2><SPAN name="THE_CAPTIVES" id="THE_CAPTIVES" />THE CAPTIVES</h2> <p>Psalm 137.</p> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span>Captives by Babel's limpid streams,<br/></span> <span>We hung our harps on willows there;<br/></span> <span>Wept over Zion; and our dreams,<br/></span> <span>Waking or sleeping, she did share.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Our victors, with their battle arms,<br/></span> <span>Derided, jeered, and scorned our tears;<br/></span> <span>Required mirth, diversion's charms,<br/></span> <span>To thus allay their guilty fears.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>&quot;Sing us a song&quot; is their demand,<br/></span> <span>&quot;Yea, sing us one of Zion's songs!&quot;<br/></span> <span>How can our voices thus expand<br/></span> <span>To what to us and God belongs?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>How can we on this heathen shore,<br/></span> <span>Surrounded by idolatry,<br/></span> <span>Sing songs that unto us are more<br/></span> <span>Than all their glittering pageantry?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Jerusalem, should we forget,<br/></span> <span>We pray our hearts and tongues be still!<br/></span> <span>Jerusalem! Oh, may we yet<br/></span> <span>Worship upon thy holy hill.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>Babylon, thou art to be destroyed!<br/></span> <span>Thy doom's foretold in prophecy;<br/></span> <span>And happy be the means employed<br/></span> <span>To hurl thee to thy destiny.<br/></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />