It retained this longer title and motto in all subsequent editions. In the editions 1807 to 1820, it was placed by itself at the end of the poems, and formed their natural conclusion and climax. In the editions 1827 and 1832, it was inappropriately put amongst “Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems.” The evident mistake of placing it amongst these seems to have suggested to Wordsworth, in 1836, its having a place by itself,--which he gave it then and retained in the subsequent editions of 1842 and 1849,--when it closed the series of minor poems in Volume V., and preceded the _Excursion_ in Volume VI. The same arrangement was adopted in the double-columned single volume edition of 1845. Mr. Aubrey de Vere has urged me to take it out of its chronological place, and let it conclude the whole series of Wordsworth’s poems, as the greatest, and that to which all others lead up. Mr. De Vere’s wish is based on conversations which he had with the poet himself. The _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, was written at intervals, between the years 1803 and 1806; and it was subjected to frequent and careful revision. No poem of Wordsworth’s bears more evident traces in its structure at once of inspiration and elaboration; of original flight of thought and _afflatus_ on the one hand, and on the other of careful sculpture and fastidious choice of phrase. But it is remarkable that there are very few changes of text in the successive editions. Most of the alterations were made before 1815, and the omission of some feeble lines which originally stood in stanza viii. in the editions of 1807 and 1815, was a great advantage in disencumbering the poem. The main revision and elaboration of this Ode, however--an elaboration which suggests the passage of the glacier ice over the rocks of White Moss Common, where the poem was murmured out stanza by stanza--was all finished before it first saw the light in 1807. In form it is irregular and original. And perhaps the most remarkable thing in its structure, is the frequent change of the keynote, and the skill and delicacy with which the transitions are made. “The feet throughout are iambic. The lines vary in length from the Alexandrine to the line with two accents. There is a constant ebb and flow in the full tide of song, but scarce two waves are alike.” (Hawes Turner, _Selections from Wordsworth_.) In the “notes” to the _Selections_ just referred to on Immortality, there is an excellent commentary on this _Ode_, almost every line of which is worthy of minute analysis and study. Some of the following are suggested by Mr. Turner’s notes. (1) _The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep._ The morning breeze blowing from the fields that were dark during the hours of sleep. (2) --_But there’s a Tree, of many, one._ Compare Browning’s _May and Death_-- Only one little sight, one plant Woods have in May, etc. (3) _The Pansy at my feet_ _Doth the same tale repeat._