The Sun Has Long Been Set

Composed June 8, 1802.--Published 1807

[This Impromptu appeared, many years ago, among the Author's poems, from which, in subsequent editions, it was excluded. [A] It is reprinted, at the request of the Friend in whose presence the lines were thrown off.--I.F.]

One of the "Evening Voluntaries."--Ed.

The sun has long been set, The stars are out by twos and threes, The little birds are piping yet Among the bushes and trees; There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes, And a far-off wind that rushes, And a sound of water that gushes, And the cuckoo's sovereign cry Fills all the hollow of the sky.

Who would go "parading" In London, "and masquerading," [B] On such a night of June With that beautiful soft half-moon, And all these innocent blisses? On such a night as this is!

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