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But we return for a moment to the personal associations of this region. Southey has often been classed with Wordsworth as belonging to a school of “Lake Poets.” Nothing could be more erroneous, as De Quincey pointed out long ago. It is true that these poets both lived by the lakes; but there is no sense in which they can be described as of the same “school.” In fact, they are curiously unlike in many of their chief characteristics; although they esteemed each other truly; and very noble are the lines which Wordsworth has dedicated to the memory of his friend:
“Wide were his aims; yet in no human breast
Could private feelings find a holier nest.
His joys, his griefs, have vanished like a cloud
From Skiddaw’s top; but he to heaven was vowed,
Through a life long and pure, and Christian faith
Calmed in his soul the fear of change and death.”*
Notes
* From the Epitaph on Southey, by Wordsworth, in Crosthwaite
Church, Keswick.