Through close reference to those poems of theirs which you have studied, discuss this assessment of the form and content of Wordsworh or Coleridge's poetry.

The ode, the most elevated and dignified kind of lyric poetry, was originally a ceremonious poem written to celebrate public accasions or exalted subjects. Among the many classical authors of the odes, Pindar and Horace have exercised the greatest influence on later writers. Pindar's odes were written for musical accompaniment and have extremely elaborate stanzaic structures. Pindar's odes were poems of praise and glorification in stanzas patterned in sets of three, strophe, anti-strophe and the differently structured epode. The first two are identical in length and other qualities, while last differ substantially.

Those of Horace were not sung but retained musical meters based on Greek models in two and four line stanzas. Horace's ode unlike Pindar's are intimate and meditative, not to mention of a simpler lyric form.

Taking a look at Horace's "We all must die" one can contend that it is a gentle satire on death which is a bridge that we all must cross because it is the fate of mankind and when the hour approaches, our earthly doings cannot deflect or delay it by an hour or any fraction of time.

Wordsworth on Helvellyn

Photograph of the gravestone of William Wordsworth...

English: Portrait of William Wordsworth by William...

The poem is intimate and meditative. It consists of seven simple stanzas of four lines each.

With reference to the romantic poet William Wordsworth, one notices some similarities in the content of his poetry to that of Horace. They are deep and meditative and focuses on mankind, human nature and nature itself. However, the stanzas are rambling and impressive in length. His poetical theory incorporates subject matter which are taken from incidents and situations from ordinary life in which the general truth discovered is the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement. The poet must have the qualities of more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, greater knowledge of human...