How lonely sits the city

We don't read much from Lamentations, a set of five poems grieving the destruction of Jerusalem and carrying away the city's population into captivity and Babylonian Exile. This coming Sunday we do read a few verses from the first poem.

The link below is to the Mechon Mamre Bible page for Lamentations chapter 1, where one can view its acrostic composition, which, in any language but Hebrew, is invisible and cannot be heard. One also can listen as it's chanted by a Hebrew cantor and perceive the sounds as it progresses through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alefbet. 

Lamentations 1:1-6

How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people! 
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations! 
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal. 
She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her; 
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile with suffering
and hard servitude; 
she lives now among the nations,
and finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress. 
The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,
and her lot is bitter.
Her foes have become the masters,
her enemies prosper, 
because the Lord has made her suffer
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
From daughter Zion has departed
all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags
that find no pasture; 
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.


https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3201.htm