Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.

By Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith

The Jewish Captive

OH Zion! if I cease for thee

My earliest vows to pay—

If for thy sad and ruined walls

I ever cease to pray—

If I no more thy sacred courts

With holy reverence prize,

Or Zion-ward shall cease to turn

My ever-longing eyes—

Or if the splendor round me thrown

Shall touch this Jewish heart,

And make me cease to prize thy joy

Above all other art,—

Oh, may this hand no more with skill

E’er touch this sacred string,

And may this tongue grow cold in death,

Ere I shall cease to sing

And pray for Zion’s holy courts,

Or dare to bow the knee

To these poor, blind and helpless gods,

Forgetful, Lord, of thee.