Classic Poem

ROYAL ARCH .

O weary hearts, so worn and desolate!
Torn from their native land, from ruined homes,
From desecrated shrines. O, hapless fate!
Better the solitude of Judah's tombs
Than all that Judah's foeman can bestow;
In the far land, where tuneless waters flow,
Along the sad Euphrates, as they sigh,
" Jerusalem! " " Jerusalem! " they cry,
" When we forget thee, city of our love,
May He forget, whose city is above;
And when we fail to speak thy matchless fame,
May He consign us to enduring shame. "

O, Joyful spirits, now so bright and free
Amid the hallowed palm trees of the West;
No more the exile's want and misery,
The tuneless waters or the homes unblest;
Remember Sion now, her ruined shrine;
And take each manly form, the work divine;
Set up the altar, let the victims bleed,
To explate each impious word and deed;
And tell the nations, when to Sion come,
" The Lord is God; He brought His people home! "