and on June 13th,
"William has been altering the poem to Mary this morning."
The "little Nook of mountain-ground" is in much the same condition now, as it was in 1802. The "flowering shrubs" and the "rocky well" still exist, and "the steep rock's breast" is "thronged with primroses" in spring. The "bower" is gone; but, where it used to be, a seat is now erected.
The Dove Cottage orchard is excellently characterised in Mr. Stopford Brooke's pamphlet describing it (1890). See also The Green Linnet, p. 367, with the note appended to it, and Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, passim.—Ed.
[Contents 1802]
[Main Contents]
"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.