I said to the stones

This somber and very beautiful kinah (lament) would have been recited at times of remembrance, perhaps on the Ninth of Av or during the prayers of Yom Kippur. In this poem, the writer appeals to a series of phenomena, from the inanimate (stones, mountains, clouds, even sailing ships) to the animate (eagles, lions, illustrious men, and wailing-women) to join his lamentation over the exile and the loss of the Temple. Each four-line stanza (formatted here as prose paragraphs) has its own end rhyme and closes with a scriptural verse that refers back to the object being addressed.