Captivity - Psalm CXXXVII, The

Burdened with grief and sick with vain desires
     And passionate longings, silently we wept
     Beside the streams of Babylon, and kept
Our thoughts on thee, oh Zion! Our hushed lyres
     Hung, stringless, on the willows, “Sing,” cried they
     Who spoiled our homes and made of us a prey,
“Sing us a song of Zion!” Vain demand!
     Wasted and worn, our temple-courts profaned—
     Our harps are mute—our cheeks with weeping stained—
How can we sing amid the stranger’s land?
If thee, Jerusalem! my soul forget
     Amid the toil of bondage and its pain,
     Let my right hand no more its skill retain,
And silence on my tongue its signet set!