Hebrew Melodies

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First edition title page

Hebrew Melodies is both a book of songs with lyrics written by Lord Byron set to Jewish tunes by Isaac Nathan as well as a book of poetry containing Byron's lyrics alone. The version with musical settings was published in April 1815 by John Murray; though expensive at a cost of one guinea, over 10,000 copies sold. In the summer of the same year Byron's lyrics were published as a book of poems.

The melodies include the famous poems "She Walks in Beauty", "The Destruction of Sennacherib" and "Vision of Belshazzar". A full list is:

  • She Walks in Beauty
  • The Harp the Monarch Minstrel swept
  • If that high world
  • The Wild Gazelle
  • Oh! weep for those
  • On Jordan's banks
  • Jephtha's Daughter
  • Oh! snatch'd away in beauty's bloom
  • My soul is dark
  • I saw thee weep
  • Thy days are done
  • It is the hour
  • Warriors and Chiefs
  • We sate down and wept by the waters of Babel
  • Vision of Belshazzar
  • Herod's Lament for Mariamne
  • Were my bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be
  • The Destruction of Sennacherib
  • Thou whose spell can raise the dead
  • When coldness wraps this suffering clay
  • Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine
  • From the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome
  • Francisca
  • Sun of the sleepless
  • Bright be the place of thy soul
  • I speak not – I trace not – I breathe not
  • In the valley of waters
  • A spirit pass'd before me
  • They say that Hope is happiness