The Babylonian Captivity Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MEME NONP OQOQ RSRT| By far Euphrates stream we state | A |
| A weary band of herded slaves | B |
| And over Judah s fallen estate | A |
| We wept into the passing waves | B |
| - | |
| On willow boughs that o er us bent | C |
| Our once glad sounding harps were hung | D |
| That but the wild wind as it went | C |
| Might grieve their wailful chords among | D |
| - | |
| But they who spoiled us even they | E |
| Who wasted us with daily wrongs | F |
| To make them mirth did asking say | E |
| Come sing us one of Zion s songs | F |
| - | |
| How can with us the will remain | G |
| To strike the harp with fettered hand | H |
| How can we sing a joyful strain | G |
| As captives in a foreign land | H |
| - | |
| And when Jerussalem We let | I |
| Thy memory pass on Time s grey wing | J |
| May our right hands at once forget | I |
| Their mastery o er the sounding string | J |
| - | |
| Yea let our tongues to song be dumb | K |
| As in a dull and voiceless dream | L |
| Till to thy courts again we come | K |
| And thy redemption be the theme | L |
| - | |
| Then Edom thou shalt get thy wound | M |
| For thou on Zion s evil day | E |
| Saidst Raze her beauty to the ground | M |
| And captive drive her sons away | E |
| - | |
| And lo Yet fiercer visions rise | N |
| The day is fixed the hour is known | O |
| When Babylon Thy fateful skies | N |
| Shall raid red wrath and ruin down | P |
| - | |
| Till by thy towers all overthrown | O |
| Thy daughters desolate as we | Q |
| Each with her shame shall sit alone | O |
| With shame and wild faced misery | Q |
| - | |
| And then may the avenger dash | R |
| Thy children s heads against stones | S |
| For so mid Zion s falling crash | R |
| Didst thou with all our little ones | T |
Charles Harpur
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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