By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept
We sate down and wept by the watersOf Babel, and thought of the dayWhen our foe, in the hue of his slaughters,Made Salem's high places his prey;And Ye, oh her desolate daughters!Were scattered all weeping away.
While sadly we gazed on the riverWhich rolled on in freedom below,They demanded the song; but, oh neverThat triumph the Stranger shall know!mkMay this right hand be withered for ever,Ere it string our high harp for the foe!
On the willow that harp is suspended,Oh Salem! its sound should be free;mlAnd the hour when thy glories were endedBut left me that token of thee:And ne'er shall its soft tones be blendedWith the voice of the Spoiler by me!
Words in this poem
- sate v. t.
- To satisfy the desire or appetite of; to satiate; to glut; to surfeit. [Probably shortened fr. satiate: cf. L. satus full. See Satiate.]
- babel n.
- The city and tower in the land of Shinar, where the confusion of languages took place. [Heb. Babel, the name of the capital of Babylonia; in Genesis associated with the idea of "confusion"]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- spoiler n.
- One who spoils; a plunderer; a pillager; a robber; a despoiler.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/by-the-rivers-of-babylon-we-sat-down-and-wept.html, id L23962.
Form and metre
By the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABAB watersA · dayB · slaughtersA · preyB · daughtersA · awayB
- 2 -AB-BA river · belowA · neverB · know!mk · everB · foeA
- 3 A-ABAB suspendedA · free;ml · endedA · theeB · blendedA · meB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| We sate down and wept by the waters | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Of Babel, and thought of the day | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters, | 10 | ·/······/˘ |
| Made Salem's high places his prey; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| And Ye, oh her desolate daughters! | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| Were scattered all weeping away. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| While sadly we gazed on the river | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Which rolled on in freedom below, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| They demanded the song; but, oh never | 9 | ·˘/˘····/ |
| That triumph the Stranger shall know!mk | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| May this right hand be withered for ever, | 9 | ·····/˘·/ |
| Ere it string our high harp for the foe! | 9 | ···/····· |
| On the willow that harp is suspended, | 10 | ··/····˘/˘ |
| Oh Salem! its sound should be free;ml | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And the hour when thy glories were ended | 10 | ··/··/˘·/˘ |
| But left me that token of thee: | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And ne'er shall its soft tones be blended | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| With the voice of the Spoiler by me! | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
On this poem
"Dear Kinnaird,--Take only one of these marked 1 and 2 [i.e. 'By the Rivers,' etc.; and 'By the waters,' vide p. 404], as both are but different versions of the same thought--leave the choice to any important person you like. Yours, B."]
Notes from the edition 1
E. H. Coleridge's notes to The Works of Lord Byron, Poetry, Vol. III (John Murray, 1900; Project Gutenberg #21811). Bracketed passages are the editor's; unbracketed are Byron's own or earlier editors'. Lettered variant readings (manuscript and edition collations) are not harvested here, matching the treatment of Coleridge's Don Juan notes.
- Stanza 1, line 1 [Landor, in his "Dialogue between Southey and Porson" (Works, 1846, i. 69), attempted to throw ridicule on the opening lines of this "Melody."
"A prey in 'the hue of his slaughters'! This is very pathetic; but not more so than the thought it suggested to me, which is plainer--
'We sat down and wept by the waters Of Camus, and thought of the day When damsels would show their red garters In their hurry to scamper away.'"]
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