"
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
ROBERT SOUTHEY.
FIDELITY.
"Fidelity," by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), is placed here out of
respect to a boy of eleven years who liked the poem well enough to
recite it frequently. The scene is laid on Helvellyn, to me the most
impressive mountain of the Lake District of England. Wordsworth is a
part of this country. I once heard John Burroughs say: "I went to the
Lake District to see what kind of a country it could be that would
produce a Wordsworth."
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
A 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 sight
All 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.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142