SUCKING INSECTS. 



197 



lively sketch of the sanguinary proceedings of the 

 gnat, when he had fallen asleep by a woodside, and 

 was poetically dreaming of fairy-land : 



(i 'Tis thine to range in busy quest of prey 



Thy feathery antlers quivering with delight, 

 Brush from my lids the hues of heaven away, 



And all is solitude, and all is nigh I 

 Ah, now thy barbed shaft, relentless fly 



Unsheaths its terrors in the sultry air ! 

 No guardian sylph, in golden panoply, 



Lifts the broad shield and points the sparkling spear. 

 Now near and nearer rush the whirring wings, 



Thy dragon scales still wet with human gore, 

 Hark, thy shrill horn its fearful larum rings, 



I wake in horror and dare sleep no more*." 



a, Male, an<T&, female gnat, magnified. 

 * To the Gnat, Pleasures of Memory, edit. 1806, p. 176. 



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