“The hills were made for freedom”

by William Goldsmith Brown English

When freedom from her home was driven,   ’Mid vine-clad vales of Switzerland, She sought the glorious Alps of heaven, And there, ’mid cliffs by lightnings riven,   Gathered her hero-band. And still outrings her freedom-song,   Amid the glaciers sparkling there, At Sabbath bell, as peasants throng Their mountain fastnesses along,   Happy, and free as air. The hills were made for freedom; they   Break at a breath the tyrant’s rod; Chains clank in valleys; there the prey Writhes ’neath Oppression’s heel alway:   Hills bow to none but God!

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