wife were staying, so that he might enjoy their society. This close friendship brought him into touch with other literary men, and he became acquainted with Robert Southey and Charles Lamb.

Meanwhile his pen was active and some of his most 5 beautiful poems were written. "It was," says Wordsworth," a very pleasant and profitable time of my life." The next summer, during a tour with his sister along the river Wye, he wrote "Tintern Abbey," an exquisite poem which was published early in September of that 10 year in his volume of "Lyrical Ballads."

Shortly afterwards the Wordsworths left their home at Alfoxden, and spent the winter at the foot of the Hartz mountains. It was bitterly cold and nothing could have been more dreary than this season at 15 Goslar; but the poet's heart turned with longing to old scenes, and some of the poems written among these bleak and wintry surroundings are filled with the breath of springtide and nature's most smiling moods.

The next December, the brother and sister went to live at Dove Cottage, Grasmere. They had been traveling for four days, much of the way on foot, but such was their delight in nature that Wordsworth wrote Coleridge an enthusiastic account of their journey :

"The frosty wind, as if to make amends

For its keen breath, was aiding to our steps,
And drove us onward like two ships at sea
Or like two birds, companions in mid-air."

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Dove Cottage is still standing by the roadside close to the lake, with a garden where some of the plants which Wordsworth set out may still be found. It was here that he wrote "To a Butterfly," "To the Small Celan5 dine," and "Daffodils."

On the 4th of October, 1802, Wordsworth was married to Mary Hutchinson, and for nearly fifty years

wrote his finest poems, among them his wonderful ode, "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," "The Prelude," and the greater part of "The Excursion." These poems will always 25 be associated with the valley of Easedale, surrounded by mountains. Along the green pathways many lines were murmured by the poet, and often was he accompanied by his wife and sister, who were ready to write the verses as they fell from the poet's lips.

In 1803 Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy went to Scotland, and there met Sir Walter Scott. They were impressed by the love and respect with which Scott was everywhere received. Two years later Scott and his wife returned this visit and were delighted with 5 their reception at the humble cottage at Grasmere.

In 1813 Rydal Mount being vacant, the family moved there, where they remained the rest of Wordsworth's life. The home at Rydal was a gray cottage, almost hidden by ivy and roses, with a picturesque, old- 10 fashioned garden.

"The Excursion and "The White Doe of Rylstone" appeared during the year 1815.

When he was from sixty to seventy years of age, Wordsworth reached the height of his popularity and 15 was looked upon as the distinguished poet of the period. He still retained his simplicity and rustic ways, and enjoyed a ramble with a little child as well as a philosophical talk with some great man. He was made poet laureate when he was seventy-three.

His life closed gently and quietly upon the 23d of April, 1850, and he was laid in the quiet churchyard at Grasmere.

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TO THE SMALL CELANDINE.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

PANSIES, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there's a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory;
Long as there are violets,

They will have a place in story: There's a flower that shall be mine, "T is the little celandine.

Eyes of some men travel far
For the finding of a star;

Up and down the heavens they go,
Men that keep a mighty rout!
I'm as great as they, I trow,
Since the day I found thee out,
Little flower! - I'll make a stir,
Like a sage astronomer.

Ere a leaf is on a bush,

In the time before the thrush
Has a thought about her nest,
Thou wilt come with half a call,
Spreading out thy glossy breast
Like a careless prodigal;
Telling tales about the sun,

When we've little warmth, or none.