Gray considered his two Pindaric odes, "The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard", as his best works. Pindaric odes are to be written with fire and passion, unlike the calmer and more reflective Horatian odes such as "Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College". "The Bard" tells of a wild Welsh poet cursing the Norman king Edward I after his conquest of Wales and prophesying in detail the downfall of the House of Plantagenet. It is melodramatic, and ends with the bard hurling himself to his death from the top of a mountain.