This poem consists of 11 stanzas of varying length, the first four of which were composed in 1802. These deal with the subject of death, a concept with which Wordsworth confesses to having struggled within childhood. This section ends with two questions:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

In 1804. Wordsworth composed a further seven stanzas which present his answer to these questions. His conclusion is:

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind.

The complete Ode was published in 1807, and a final revised version in 1815.

While some reviewers, notably Lord Byron and John Ruskin, dismissed the poem as being of little value, it is today regarded as one of Wordsworth's greatest works.