t of
his poetry, remains almost unchanged. It is one of the most
interesting literary homes in England.

[Illustration: DOVE COTTAGE.]

In 1813 he moved a short distance away, to Rydal Mount, where he lived
the remainder of his life. In 1843 he was chosen poet laureate. He
died in 1850 and was buried in Grasmere Churchyard.

A Poet of Nature.--Wordsworth is one of the world's most loving and
thoughtful lyrical poets of Nature. For him she possessed a soul, a
conscious existence, an ability to feel joy and love. In _Lines
written in Early Spring_, he expresses this belief:--

"And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes."

All things seem to him to feel pure joy in existence:--

"The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare."

It was also his poetic creed that Nature could bring to human hearts a
message of solace and companionship. His poem, _Lines composed a Short
Distance above Tintern Abbey_, is a remarkable exposition of this
faith.

He would have scorned to be considered merely a descriptive poet of
nature. He satirizes those who could do nothing more than correctly
apply the color "yellow" to the primrose:--

"A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him
And it was nothing more."

He interprets the sympathetic soul of Nature, not merely her outward
or her intellectual aspect. He says in _The Prelude_:--

"From Nature and her overflowing soul
I had received so much, that all my thoughts
Were steeped in feeling."

If we compare Wordsworth's line--

"This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,"[14]

with Tennyson's line from _The Princess_--

"A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight,"

we may easily decide which shows more feeling and which, more art.

Many poets have produced beautiful paintings of the external features
of nature. With rare genius, Wordsworth looked beyond the color of the
flower, the outline of the hills, the beauty of the clouds, to the
spirit that breathed through them, and he communed with "Nature's
self, which is the breath of God." He introduced lovers of his poetry
to a new world of nature, a new source of companionship and solace, a
new idea of a Being in cloud and air and "the green leaves among the
groves."

Poetry of Man: Narrative Poems.--Wordsworth is a poet of man as well
as of nature. The love for nature came to him first; but out of it
grew his regard for the people who lived nea