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FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  So it is printed in the ‘Prose Works of Wordsworth’ (1876); but the date was 1805.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  In a Ms. copy this series is called “Poems composed ’for amusement’ during a Tour, chiefly on foot.”—­Ed.]

Compare this poem with Shelley’s ‘Skylark’, and with Wordsworth’s poem, on the same subject, written in the year 1825, and the last five stanzas of his ‘Morning Exercise’ written in 1827; also with William Watson’s ‘First Skylark of Spring’, 1895.—­Ed.

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FIDELITY

Composed 1805.—­Published 1807

[The young man whose death gave occasion to this poem was named Charles Gough, and had come early in the spring to Patterdale for the sake of angling.  While attempting to cross over Helvellyn to Grasmere he slipped from a steep part of the rock where the ice was not thawed, and perished.  His body was discovered as described in this poem.  Walter Scott heard of the accident, and both he and I, without either of us knowing that the other had taken up the subject, each wrote a poem in admiration of the dog’s fidelity.  His contains a most beautiful stanza: 

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

I will add that the sentiment in the last four lines of the last stanza of my verses was uttered by a shepherd with such exactness, that a traveller, who afterwards reported his account in print, was induced to question the man whether he had read them, which he had not.—­I.  F.]

One of the “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection.”—­Ed.

  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 through that covert green. [1]

  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 [A] below! [B] 20
  Far in the bosom of Helvellyn,
  Remote from public road or dwelling,
  Pathway, or cultivated land;
  From trace of human foot or hand.