L ucifers and the Poets. 253 



noteworthy. His poems are full of delightful moths, and he 

 is tender to the owl, " sad Aziola." Both glow-worm and 

 firefly sparkle throughout his verse. And, indeed, who knew 

 the twilight and the starlit hours so well as he ? He has a 

 charming fancy about the glow-worm, that it lives in lilies, 

 and that the petals fold over it to keep it from the dew, which 

 otherwise might quench its tiny spark. In the "Sensitive 

 Plant," the flowers drooping at evening " fall into pavilions 

 white, purple, and blue, To roof the glow-worm from the 

 evening dew " ; and, again, in the "Witch of Atlas," 



"A green and glowing light, like that which drops 

 From folded lilies in which glow-worms dwell, 

 When earth o'er her face night's mantle wraps." 



I do not understand the " dropping " of the light the poet 

 repeats it twice elsewhere for the glow-worm's light always 

 strikes me as being constant in place even though fluctuating 

 in degree. It certainly is not, as many poets describe it, 

 "glancing," or "glittering," nor can Cunningham's moral 

 commend itself from any point of view, whether real or 

 imaginative. 



" How bright the little insects blaze 



Where willows shade the way, 

 As proud as if their painted rays 

 Could emulate the day. 



" 'Tis thus the pigmy sons of pow'r 



Advance their vain parade, 

 Thus glitter in the darken'd hour, 

 And like the glow-worms fade." 



The " modest " and " humble " glow-worm are both better, 

 and its light is best described in such of the poets' phrases as 

 " lustre mild," " pale lustre," " soft green light," or " harmless 

 ray." 



Barry Cornwall has a sympathetic verse : 



" Night's shining servant ! Pretty star of earth 

 I ask not why thy lamp does ever burn ; 

 Perhaps it is thy very life thy mind ; 



