“Knowest Thou the Land?”
I.
Knowest thou the land?
Where Lebanon's great cedars proudly toss their mighty branches, And the sun declining bathes in glory Carmel by the sea, Where Jordan winds and glides beside the glades and glens of Gilead, And the moonbeams kiss the wavelets on the lakes of Galilee?
CHORUS:
'Tis the land of the Hebrew, his heart's sole delight, No joy can her sons ever know— For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion, alone in her woe. For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion, alone in her woe!
II.
Knowest thou the land?
Where vineyards are empurpled with the heavy drooping cluster And the rustling of the golden grain makes music sweet to hear, Where pastures stud the hills and dales from Dan unto Beersheba And the ruins of the Temple wake the heart and call the tear?
CHORUS:
'Tis the land of the Hebrew, his heart's sole delight, No joy can her sons ever know— For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion, alone in her woe. For their thought by the day and their dream by the night Is Zion, alone in her woe!
III.
God protect the land!
The foeman's sword may drive us forth to die or lie in dungeons, And the byeword of the nations Judah's children long may be, But on the day that sees us false, may Heaven's light be darkened, Our tongues be dumb, our hearts be stilled before we're false to thee—
CHORUS:
O thou land of our fathers, our hearts' sole delight, No joy can thy sons ever know; For our thought by the day and our dream by the night Art thou, Zion, lonely in woe! For our thought by the day and our dream by the night Art thou, Zion, lonely in woe!
By Babel's Streams
(Paraphrase of Psalm 137)
L.
By Babel's streams we sat, we wept,Rememb'ring Zion's fallen state;We hung the harp whose music sleptOn willows 'neath whose solemn shadeWe talked of Zion's glory.
CHORUS : We talked of Zion's glory We dreamed of Zion's glory, Where willows cast their solemn shade We wept of Zion's glory.
II.
The captor cruel mocked the sigh And bade us sing of Zion's songs,— With breaking hearts we made reply “To Zion's land alone belongs The sound of Zion's glory!”
CHORUS : The songs of Zion's glory, The sounds of Zion's glory, To Zion's land alone belongs The sound of Zion's glory.
III.
How can we from the harp-string wake In stranger's land the sacred lay? Each harp-string, aye, our hearts would break Before our fingers would obey, For lost is Zion's glory!
CHORUS: For lost is Zion's glory Alas for Zion's glory! The heart and hand will not obey, For lost is Zion's glory!
IV.
O Salem! If thy sacred land Forgotten be, if false we prove, May mem'ry fail,—may palsied hand, And dastard tongues refuse to move If we forget thy glory!
CHORUS: If we forget thy glory, If we forget thy glory . May mem'ry, life itself, depart— 'Fore we forget thy glory!