The summer of 1797 saw him and Dorothy begin a golden year at Alfoxden in Somersetshire, in close association with Coleridge. The result of this companionship was _Lyrical Ballads_, an epoch-making volume of romantic verse, containing such gems as Wordsworth's _Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, Lines written in Early Spring, We Are Seven_, and Coleridge's _The Ancient Mariner_. "All good poetry," wrote Wordsworth in the _Preface_ to the second edition of this volume, "is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." This is the opposite of the belief of the classical school. In 1797, after a trip to Germany, he and Dorothy settled at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, in the Lake Country. She remained a member of the household after he married his cousin, Mary Hutchinson, in 1802. The history of English authors shows no more ideal companionship than that of these three kindred souls. Dove Cottage where he wrote the best 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.