Lord Byron Sings of Zion

It wasn't only the poets of Israel, ancient, medieval and modern, who wrote poems of Zion. Lord Byron too, the English poet, wrote a poem of Zion. Recall that Byron took part in the Greek War of Liberation from an Islamic empire.

Judah's Broken Shell
Oh! Weep for those that wept by Babel's stream,
Whose shrines are desolate,
Whose land a dream.
Weep for the harp of Judah's broken shell.
Mourn --where their God hath dwelt, the godless dwell!
And where shall Israel lave her bleeding feet?
And when shall Zion's songs again seem sweet?
And Judah's melody once more rejoice the hearts
that leaped before its heavenly voice?
Tribes of the wandering foot and the weary breast,
how shall ye flee away and be at rest!
The wild dove hath her rest, the fox his cave,
mankind their country
-- Israel but the grave!

This seems to be a sonnet in form. In any case, we cannot accept the last verse. It is an injustice, although Byron seems to have understood that there were those --not only in Dar al-Islam-- who wanted [and still want today] the Jews to have only the grave.
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Coming: More poems of Zion, Jewish life under Arab oppression in Israel and elsewhere, etc.