In response, Coleridge wrote To William Wordsworth, in January 1807, to capture his positive feelings about his friend's poem.
Portions of the poem were printed in the Friend in 1809, but Wordsworth did not wish it to be published because of the private nature of Coleridge's response.
[4] The poem paraphrases the ideas of Wordsworth's The Prelude:[5] Into my heart have I received that Lay More than historic, that prophetic Lay Wherein (high theme by thee first sung aright) Of the foundations and the building up Of a Human Spirit thou hast dared to tell What may be told, to the understanding mind Revealable; and what within the mind By vital breathings secret as the soul Of vernal growth, oft quickens in the heart Thoughts all too deep for words!—[6] The poem continues with an image of mourning and then praising Wordsworth:[5] And Genius given, and Knowledge won in vain; And all which I had culled in wood-walks wild, And all which patient toil had reared, and all, Commune with thee had opened out—but flowers Strewed on my corse, and borne upon my bier In the same coffin, for the self-same grave!
and ill beseems it me, Who came a welcomer in herald's guise, Singing of Glory, and Futurity, To wander back on such unhealthful road, Plucking the poisons of self-harm!
[5] The poem also attacks Coleridge in a masochistic manner and places the writer and his own ideas in an inferior position.
"[11] Rosemary Ashton believes that "Though of course the poem is an epitaph for the passing of his poetic genius, it shows, as Coleridge is aware, 'momentary stars' of imaginative energy on his part, in response to the sustained 'Orphic song' of Wordsworth.