Page:Songs of exile (IA songsofexile00daviiala).pdf/43

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ODE TO ZION
39

Thou art the royal house; thou art the throne
Of God; and how come slaves to sit at last
Upon the thrones which were thy lords' alone?

Would I were wandering in the places where
God's glory was revealed in that time past,
Revealed in thee to messenger and seer.

And who will make me wings that I may fly,
That I may hasten thither far away
Where mine heart's ruins 'mid thy ruins lie?

Prostrate upon thine earth, I fain would thrust
Myself, delighting in thy stones, and lay
Exceeding tender hold upon thy dust.

Yea, standing by the burial-places there
Of mine own fathers, I would wondering gaze,
In Hebron, at each chosen sepulchre;