PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



VOL. 24 OCT.-NOV., 1922 No. 7-8 



THE ENTOMOLOGY OF ENGLISH POETRY. 1 



BY W. R. WALTON. 



"Nor shall the Muse disdain 

 To let the little, noisy summer-race 

 Live in her lay, and flutter through her Song. " 



Thomson. 



By "English poetry," I mean the poetry of the English lan- 

 guage and the period covered in the following discussion is from 

 the last of the fourteenth to the end of the nineteenth century, 

 or approximately five hundred years. 



In the choice of this somewhat odd subject as a title for the 

 present paper, I offer no reasons other than those of curiosity 

 and inclination. If an excuse for the perpetration of this paper 

 should be demanded, however, it might be pleaded with some 

 show of truth that although the prose writings on entomology 

 have been well catalogued in this country, on the contrary, the 

 poetic literature of entomology remains for the most part hidden 

 away under titles not included in the libraries of science or 

 buried under mountains of verse dealing with totally unrelated 

 subjects. 



Some few writers, it is true, have included in a decorative 

 way, brief excerpts from famous poets in popular or general 

 works on entomology. Such references may be found in Kirby 

 and Spence, 2 the "Butterflies t>f the Eastern United States and 

 Canada," by Samuel Scudder, and the "Moth" and "Butterfly" 

 Books of W. J. Holland. The general subject has also been 

 cleverly introduced by Harriette Wilbur 3 who treats it largely 

 from a poetical standpoint, illustrating her discussion with 

 copious excerpts from the poets, especially those of recent years. 



In this comparatively brief paper it will be possible merely to 

 skim over the subject somewhat hurriedly. Starting originally 



'The writer desires to express his indebtedness to Mr. J. S. Wade for valuable 

 aid in the bibliographical researches attendant upon the preparation of this 

 paper and to Miss Susan Alexander for intelligent and sympathetic aid in the 

 preparation of the manuscript. 



2 An Introduction to Entomology: Or, Elements of the Natural History of 

 Insects. London, 1822, 1826. 



3 The Entomology of the Poets, Harriette Wilbur, American Catholic Quarterly 

 Review, Vol. XLV, Oct. 1919, pp. 566-587. 



