The following poem ‘To Switzerland’ was written anonymously and first appeared in Hugh Williams‘s National Songs and Poetical Pieces (1839).

LAND of cloud-capp’d piny mountains,

   Where eternal snow-wreaths shine;

Land of glaciers, lakes, and fountains,

   Be a poet’s blessing thine!

Not for these romantic features,

   Be that benison bestow’d;

Servile slaves or savage creatures,

   There might fix their foul abode.

Thine a nobler race inherit,

   Nobler inmates ‘mid them dwell;

Liberty’s unconquer’d spirit,

   Forms their purest, holiest spell.

Thine is freedom’s glorious charter,

   Wak’ning thoughts and deeds sublime;

Thine are boons too rich to barter,

   Manners of the olden time.

Long be such thy proud possession,

   Virtue’s pledge and Honour’s spell;

Still hold fast thy high profession,

   Worthy of the band of TELL!

So may all who fondly claim thee,

   For their birth-place, while they roam;

With a child’s affection name thee

   As their heart’s most cherish’d home!