The work describes Hunt's contemporary poets, and either praises or mocks them by allowing only the best to dine with Apollo.

In 1813, James Cawthorn, a publisher, asked Hunt to complete a full-length edition of the poem that would include both an introduction and notes to the work.

[3] The poem satirically describes many of Hunt's contemporaries: Wordsworth is experiencing a "second childhood", Coleridge "muddles" in writing, and William Gifford is a "sour little gentleman".

[6] His view of Wordsworth changed to praising Wordsworth as a great poet but also one that "substitute[s] one set of diseased perceptions for another: he says to us, "Your complexion is diseased your blood fevered you endeavour to keep up your pleasurable sensations by stimulants too violent to last, which must be succeeded by others of still greater violence:- this will not do: your mind wants air and exercise, – fresh thoughts and natural excitements:- up, my friend; come out with me among the beauties of nature and the simplicities of life, and feel the breath of heaven about you".

– No advice can be better: we feel the call instinctively; we get up, accompany the poet into his walks, and acknowledge them to be the best and the most beautiful; but what do we meet there?

Idiot boys, Mad Mothers, Wandering Jews...[7] Regardless of the problems, Hunt admits to a connection with Wordsworth, especially in their use of poetry to deal with complex psychological issues.

Hazlitt's review, grounded in Hunt's ideas, influenced John Keats's view of the "wordsworthian or egotistical sublime".