Fidelity

"How long did'st thou think that his silence was slumber!When the wind waved his garment how oft did'st thou start!"

A barking sound the Shepherd hears,A cry as of a dog or fox;He halts--and searches with his eyesAmong the scattered rocks:And now at distance can discernA stirring in a brake of fern;And instantly a dog is seen,Glancing through that covert green.

The Dog is not of mountain breed;Its motions, too, are wild and shy;With something, as the Shepherd thinks,Unusual in its cry:Nor is there any one in sightAll round, in hollow or on height;Nor shout, nor whistle strikes his ear;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!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 fishSend through the tarn a lonely cheer;The crags repeat the raven's croak,In symphony austere;Thither the rainbow comes--the cloud--And mists that spread the flying shroud;And sunbeams; and the sounding blast,That, if it could, would hurry past;But that enormous barrier holds it fast.

Not free from boding thoughts, a whileThe Shepherd stood; then makes his wayO'er rocks and stones, following the DogAs quickly as he may;Nor far had gone before he foundA human skeleton on the ground;The appalled Discoverer with a sighLooks round, to learn the history.

From those abrupt and perilous rocksThe Man had fallen, that place of fear!At length upon the Shepherd's mindIt breaks, and all is clear:He instantly recalled the name,And who he was, and whence he came;Remembered, too, the very dayOn which the Traveller passed this way.

But hear a wonder, for whose sakeThis lamentable tale I tell!A lasting monument of wordsThis wonder merits well.The Dog, which still was hovering nigh,Repeating the same timid cry,This Dog, had been through three months' spaceA dweller in that savage place.

Yes, proof was plain that, since the dayWhen this ill-fated Traveller died,The Dog had watched about the spot,Or by his master's side:How nourished here through such long timeHe knows, who gave that love sublime;And gave that strength of feeling, greatAbove all human estimate!