Since the previous age was the neoclassical period, which placed a high value upon reason and regulations. The Romantic Age emphasized the significance of intuition and emotions; therefore, it is possible to say that individualism is the keyword to understand the ideas of Romantic writers.
Being one of the individualists, it is difficult to point up the specific philosophy concerned in Wordsworth’s poems. Generally, most of his works attach to at least these terms, imagination, childhood and, absolutely, nature. To understand Wordsworth, it is helpful to know something about the place where he was born and raised. A section in northwestern England known as Lake District was that place. It was the place enriched by lakes, mountains, streams and waterfalls, where he lived with his family. Thus, it is obvious that his poems were inspired by his love in the surrounding nature.
In accordance with Wordsworth and other Romantics, whose attitude toward imagination is the very reproduction in man of the divine creativity, the poem “The sun has long been set” also underlines the idea. Since imagination in the Romantic’s point of view is to turn into other times and places, almost every lines of this poem did so. As we could see that imageries are richly employed. For instance, the stars are out by twos and threes or with that beautiful soft half-moon are the image of sight, the little birds are piping yet, and a far-off wind that rushes and and a sound of water that gushes are the image of sound. By saying that Wordsworth is one of those reproductions, he succeeded in taking his readers to his imagination world or, perhaps, his memory and, moreover, making hills are alive by the employment of these imageries.
Imageries were composed in the poem not only to provide readers the picture of Wordsworth’s beloved place, but also to indicate other ideas of Romanticism from his mind. The poem is an evidence of its writer’s love of the wild, mountainous English lakes, which reflects a sense of natural piety or the beauty of the nature that chiefly concerned by the Romantic poets. Furthermore, according to the poem’s setting that takes place somewhere likely to be a forest and in the twilight time, it is hidden with a sense of melancholy and loneliness, because the narrator of the poem appears to be alone in that place and he may be somehow seek for a sympathy of being alone. However, some people might argue that the narrator does not seek for sympathy, indeed, due to the essence of Romanticism, he seeks for individuality.
As mentioned earlier that individualism is the keyword to Romanticism, Wordsworth declared his standpoint to be individual or nonconformist through the last stanza of “The sun has long been set” as follows. In line 10-15, which he questioned “Who would “go parading” in London, “and masquerading,” on such a night of June…,” states a sense of rebellion against the principles and customs of the 18th century. While extravagant living and social life were esteemed by the neoclassical thoughts, the Romantics, especially Wordsworth preferred country life and the joy of solitude. When the poem reached its bottom line, “on such a night at this is!” it brings readers to a conclusion that the narrator, perhaps Wordsworth himself, refused to go either parading or masquerading but enjoyed living in his solitary life ever.
