Sitting by the Streams That Glide

Alternate title: 'By the Waters of Babylon'

Lyrics

• Poet: Thomas Carew (ca. 1595 to ca. 1639)
• Copyright: Public Domain

Lyrics from A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1841

Hymn 286
7 7 7 7 7
1. Sitting by the streams that glide
Down by Babel's towering wall;
With our tears we swell the tide,
While our mournful thoughts recall,
Thee, O Zion, and thy fall.

2. On the willows there we hung
Our neglected harps on high,
Silent, useless, and unstrung,
Strangers now to harmony,
Once our bus'ness and our joy.

3. Then our proud, triumphant foes,
Haughty, insolent, and gay,
Call for music in our woes,
Sing us some sweet Hebrew lay
Sacred to some holy day.

4. Cruel foes t' insult us so,
Sunk so deep in helpless grief,
Sighs and tears to vent our wo,
Now our only poor relief,
To the charms of music deaf.

5. O Jerusalem! O, thy fate,
Wounds my bleeding heart so deep,
Let my trembling hands forget
How the tuneful lyre to sweep,
When for thee I cease to weep.