PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL. 24, NO. 7-8, OCT.-NOV., 1922 161 



to Longfellow, demonstrates beyond cavil the existence of a 

 very intimate connection between these seemingly remote 

 subjects. 



When we consider the fact that insects are the most numerous 

 of all visible creatures and that according to McAtee, 1 every 

 four square feet of ordinary meadow land may contain approxi- 

 mately 1200 individual insects, or about 13,000,000 per acre, it 

 does not seem remarkable that their presence has become 

 apparent even to the poets. 



It is not my purpose seriously to discuss the subject from the 

 poet's point of view, as I do not pretend to competency in this 

 respect, but rather to approach it principally from the stand- 

 point of entomological interest. It should be realized, however, 

 that your true poet must of necessity ever be a naturalist in the 

 broader sense of the term and therefore possess at least an ele- 

 mentary knowledge of the familiar insect fauna of the home, 

 the field and the wood. It is true, moreover, that there have 

 been naturalists who might well lay claim to real poetic ability; 

 David Thoreau was one of these. 



The insects most commonly mentioned in poetry are, as 

 might be surmised, those forms most familiar to man and especi- 

 ally the species domiciled near, with, or even upon his person, as 

 will be shown when we proceed more deeply into the subject. 

 By far the greater number of such references are embodied in 

 lines dedicated to subjects utterly unrelated to entomology, 

 where they occur merely by way of similitude, trope or meta- 

 phor. 



When we come to inquire regarding the entomology of the 

 earlier poets some curious facts are developed. Chaucer and 

 Shakespeare bitten by fleas; Spenser grievously worried by flies; 

 and even Milton, whose imagination soared to the very heights 

 of heaven itself, could not escape entirely the influences of the 

 class Insecta in his work! As it is in real life, so we find it in 

 the realms of imagination; insects pervade all human affairs. 



References to insects are introduced into poetry for a variety 

 of purposes, some of which are as follows: First by way of 

 simile, which is by far the commoner way. 



"Here in her hairs 



The painter plays the spider; and hath woven 

 A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men, 

 Faster than gnats in cobwebs." 



Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice. 



Second, in pastoral scenes as a part of rural life, like this from 

 Gray : 



'McAtee, W. L. Census of Four Square Feet, Science, Vol. 26, pp. 447-449, 

 Oct. 4, 1907. 



