232 The Poets and Nature. 



" And scorching sunbeams warm and sultry creep 

 Waking the teazing insects from their sleep : 

 And dreaded gad-flies with their drowsy hum 

 On the burnt wings of mid-day zephyrs come, 

 Urging each clown to leave his sports in fear, 

 To stop his starting cows that dread the fly : 

 Droning unwelcome tidings in his ear 

 That the sweet peace of rural morn's gone by." Clare. 



The May-fly, always pitied as being ephemeral and the 

 prey for fishes, is often, and very charmingly, noticed as 

 " fluttering, for a summer's day, upon the glassy bosom of 

 the pool," or (Savage) " dancing on the stream till the 

 watery racer snatches it away." It is a regularly recurrent 

 feature of spring evenings as the " quick water-fly " or 

 "mazy insect." But, nevertheless, well as the poets knew 

 it, it is constantly found maggot-bred, living in courts or on 

 popular favour, and so forth, " for a day." 



The dragon-fly is, curiously enough, a great favourite 

 with the poets. Every reference to it is admirable, as, for 

 instance, these examples : 



"And forth on floating gauze, no jewell'd queen 

 So rich, the green-eyed dragon-flies would break 

 And hover on the flowers, aerial things, 

 With little rainbows flickering on their wings." Jean Ingelow. 



" And just above the surface of the floods, 

 Where water-lilies mount their snowy heads, 

 On whose broad swimming leaves of glossy green 

 The shining dragon-fly is often seen." Clare. 



"Mark how clear 



It sparkles o'er the shallows ; and behold 

 Where o'er its surface wheels with restless speed 

 Yon glossy insect ; on the sand below 

 How the swift shadow flits." Southey. 



Of course it is obvious that, except the naturalist Darwin, 

 who sees 



" Fierce Libellula, with jaws of steel, 

 Ingulf an insect province at a meal," 



