 After the poem's original creation, it was expanded from its original use of an Aeolian harp as its theme over the months that followed. However, Coleridge did not stop working on it when it was first published. Instead, the poem was expanded and rewritten throughout Coleridge's life until 1817. Of the final version, lines 21 – 25 were previously removed between the 1797 and 1815 editions of Coleridge's poems. Likewise, lines 26 – 33 were altered through the multiple editions. Regardless of the amount of editing, Coleridge believed that the poem served as a model for other poems, especially those in the series called Conversation poems. Of The Eolian Harp as a model for poetry, Coleridge wrote, "Let me be excused, if it should seem to others too mere a trifle to justify my noticing it — but I have some claim to the thanks of no small number of the readers of poetry in having first introduced this species of short blank verse poems — of which Southey, Lamb, Wordsworth, and others have since produced so many exquisite specimens."
