Fidelity - by Wordsworth

Fidelity

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

A BARKING sound the shepherd hears, A cry as of a dog or fox; He halts, and searches with his eyes Among the scattered rocks: And now at distance can discern         5 A stirring in a brake of fern; And instantly a dog is seen Glancing from that covert green. The dog is not of mountain breed; Its motions, too, are wild and shy;         10 With something, as the shepherd thinks, Unusual in its cry: Nor is there any one in sight All round, in hollow or on height; Nor shout, nor whistle strikes his ear:         15 What is the creature doing here? It was a cove, a huge recess, That keeps till June December’s snow; A lofty precipice in front, A silent tarn below!         20 Far in the bosom of Helvellyn, Remote from public road or dwelling, Pathway, or cultivated land, From trace of human foot or hand. There sometimes doth a leaping fish         25 Send through the tarn a lonely cheer; The crags repeat the ravens’ croak In symphony austere; Thither the rainbow comes—the cloud— And mists that spread the flying shroud;         30 And sunbeams: and the sounding blast, That, if it could, would hurry past, But that enormous barrier binds it fast. Not free from boding thoughts, a while The shepherd stood; then makes his way         35 Towards the dog, o’er rocks and stones, As quickly as he may; Nor far had gone before he found A human skeleton on the ground: The appalled discoverer with a sigh         40 Looks round, to learn the history. From those abrupt and perilous rocks The man had fallen, that place of fear! At length upon the shepherd’s mind It breaks, and all is clear:         45 He instantly recalled the name, And who he was, and whence he came; Remembered, too, the very day On which the traveller passed this way. But hear a wonder, for whose sake         50 This lamentable tale I tell! A lasting monument of words This wonder merits well. The dog, which still was hovering nigh, Repeating the same timid cry,         55 This dog had been through three months’ space A dweller in that savage place. Yes, proof was plain that since the day On which the traveller thus had died The dog had watched about the spot,         60 Or by his master’s side: How nourished here through such long time He knows, who gave that love sublime, And gave that strength of feeling, great Above all human estimate.