254 The Poets and Nat^tre. 



And thou, if robbed of that strange right of birth, 

 Might be no more than man when death doth turn 

 His beauty into darkness, cold and blind." 



There is one idea, sufficiently obvious, which might occur 

 to any imaginative intelligence as he watches the insect 

 after nightfall " move with green radiance through the grass, 

 An emerald of light ; " but yet it is one which, remembering 

 not only the gentle circumstances of this little creature's 

 effulgence, its wingless groundling state, "and the dangers 

 which its far-seen affection attracts, but admiring also its 

 curious beauty the little " fairy-lamp " of elfin revel, the wee 

 pale glimmer in the green I, for one, would rather forego. 

 What if the creature is only a grub-like obscurity by day, 

 and comes forth in the dark to shine and to allure? The 

 analogy ends there. For half of the insect world our day is 

 their night, while as for the glow-worm herself, her taper is 

 meant for one alone ; and just as among the Ana the wife 

 hangs up her wings after marriage, to show that she has 

 found a home and final abiding-place at last, so the glow- 

 worm, once mated, pales her useless fire and forgets that 

 once she shone. But not so the poets, who tatter the idea 

 to shreds. 



The following represents compendiously the aspects which 

 it assumes : 



" Thus oft we see a glow-worm gay 

 At large her fiery tail display, 



Encouraged by the dark ; 

 And yet the sullen thing all day 

 Snug in the lonely thicket lay, 



And hid the native spark." Fenton. 



" But thou, with spirit frail and light, 

 Wilt shine awhile and pass away, 

 As glow-worms sparkle through the night, 

 But dare not stand the test of day." Byron. 



" Confiding glow-worms, 'tis a night 

 Propitious to your earth-born light, 



