The Simplon: Farewell to Switzerland

Land of the brave! land of the free! farewell!
Thee nature moulded in her wildest mood,
Scoop'd the deep glen and bade the mountains swell
O'er the dark belt of arrowy tannen wood.
The hills I roamed in gladness; pure and white
Beams their broad mantle of eternal snows
In sparkling splendour; and with crimson light
Tinged are its curling folds when sunset glows.
With my own hands 't was sweet to climb the crag,
Upborne and nourished by the mountain air;
While the lean mules would far behind me lag,
The fainting sons of indolence that bear..
'T was sweet at noonday, stretched in idle ease,
To watch the stream, that hurries o'er the steep:
At one bold bound the precipice he frees,
Pours from the rocks, and hastes through vales to sweep;
There in still nook he forms the smiling lake
Of glassy clearness, where the boatman glides;
And thence a gentler course his torrents take,
And white-walled towns like lillies deck his sides..
And as I lay in Nature's soothing arms,
On Memory's leaf she drew in colours bright
The mountain landscape's ever varying charms,
And bade Remembrance guard each haughty height,
I dared to tread, each vale I wander'd through,
And every tree that cooled me with its shade,
Each glacier whence- the air refreshing blew,
Each limpid fountain that my thirst allayed.
O Earth! I cried, thou kindest nurse, still turns
To thee the heart, that withered like the leaf
In autumn's blast, and bruised by anguish, mourns
Departed happiness. There is relief
Upon thy bosom; from the fountains gush
To cool the heated brow with purest wave;
And when distress the struggling soul would crush,
Thy tranquil mien hath power to heal, and save
From wasting grief. My spirit too was sear,
As is the last gray leaf, that lingers yet
On oaken branch, although my twentieth year
Upon my youthful head no mark had set.
To thee in hope and confidence I came,
And thou didst lend thine air a soothing balm;
Didst teach me sorrow's fearful power to tame,
And be, though pensive, cheerful, pleased, and calm.
My heart was chilled; age stole upon my mind,
In hour untimely, Spring from life to wrest;
I wandered far, my long-lost youth to find,
And I regain it, Nature, on thy breast!