By The Rivers Of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept
By: Lord Byron We sat down and wept by the waters Of Babel, and thought of the day When 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 river Which rolled on in freedom below, They demanded the song; but, oh never That triumph the stranger shall know! May 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; And the hour when thy glories were ended But left me that token of thee: And ne'er shall its soft tones be blended With the voice of the spoiler by me! |
Bright Star
By: John Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-- No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever--or else swoon to death. |
AnalysisBy The Rivers Of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept:
I chose this poem because it interested me when I first read it. To me, it means: not to be weak, don't take things for granted, and mourn when you need to. Bright Star: Symbol
The main theme of Keats's poem is the idea of eternity. This is the reason why the star is so important to Keats's speaker: because it lasts forever. Over the course of the poem, however, it becomes clear that the speaker doesn't just want any old eternity – especially not an eternity isolated in the top of the high heavens like the star. Instead, he wants to spend eternity with his head pressed against his girlfriend's chest. And if he can't have that, he would rather "swoon" away into another eternity: the eternity of death. |