I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
Many men walk by day;
few walk by night.
It is a very different season.
Instead of the sun,
there are the moon and stars;
instead of the wood thrush,
there is the whip-poor-will;
instead of butterflies,
fireflies--
winged sparks of fire!
June 3. It has been a sultry day, and a slight thunder-shower, and now I see fireflies in the meadows at evening. June 3, 1852
June 4. George Minott says he saw many lightning-bugs a warm evening the forepart of this week, after the rains. Probably it was the 29th. June 4, 1853
June 7. Mosquitoes are very troublesome in the woods . . . This muggy evening I see fireflies, the first I have seen or heard of at least. June 7, 1854
June 7. Fireflies pretty numerous over the river, though we have had no thunder-showers of late. Mosquitoes quite troublesome here. June 7, 1858
June 8. See lightning-bugs to-night. June 8, 1859
June 11. When I get away from the town and deeper into the night, I hear whip-poor-wills, and see fireflies in the meadow. June 11, 1851
Away from the town
and deeper into the night --
whip-poor-wills, fireflies.
June 13. A few fireflies in the meadow. Do they shine, though invisibly, by day? Is their candle lighted by day? June 13, 1851
June 14. Where there was only one firefly in a dozen rods, I hastily ran to one which had crawled up to the top of a grass head and exhibited its light, and instantly another sailed in to it , showing its light also; but my presence made them extinguish their lights. The latter retreated, and the former crawled slowly down the stem. It appeared to me that the first was a female who thus revealed her place to the male, who was also making known his neighborhood as he hovered about, both showing their lights that they might come together. It was like a mistress who had climbed to the turrets of her castle and exhibited there a blazing taper for a signal, while her lover had displayed his light on the plain. If perchance she might have any lovers abroad. June 14, 1851
June 15. It is candle light. The fishes leap. The meadows sparkle with the coppery light of fireflies. June 15, 1852
June 16. Heat lightning in the horizon. A sultry night. A flute from some villager. How rare among men so fit a thing as the sound of a flute at evening! Have not the fireflies in the meadow relation to the stars above, étincelant? When the darkness comes, we see stars beneath also . . . Do not the stars, too, show their light for love, like the fireflies? June 16, 1852
When the darkness comes
do not the stars like fireflies
show their light for love?
June 16, 1852
June 16. The meadows full of lightning-bugs to-night; first seen the 14th. June 16, 1860
June 16. It appears to me that these phenomena occur simultaneously, say June 12th, viz.:
• Heat about. 85° at 2 P.M• Hylodes cease to peep.• Purring frogs (Rana palustris) cease• Lightning-bugs first seen• Bullfrogs trump generally.• Mosquitoes begin to be really troublesome.• Afternoon thunder-showers almost regular• Sleep with open window.• Turtles fairly and generally begun to lay.
June 16, 1860
June 17. In the damp, warm evening after the rain, the fireflies appear to be more numerous than ever. June 17, 1852
June 22. The fireflies in the meadows are very numerous, as if they had replenished their lights from the lightning. June 22, 1852
June 25. The fireflies appear to be flying, though they may be stationary on the grass stems, for their perch and the nearness of the ground are obscured by the darkness, and now you see one here and then another there, as if it were one in motion. Their light is singularly bright and glowing to proceed from a living creature. June 25, 1852
June 25. What were the firefly's light, if it were not for darkness? The one implies the other. June 25, 1852
June 30. It is starlight about half an hour after sunset to-night; i. e. the first stars appear. . . .Ten or fifteen minutes after, the fireflies are observed, at first about the willows on the Causeway, where the evening is further advanced. June 30, 1852
June 17. In the damp, warm evening after the rain, the fireflies appear to be more numerous than ever. June 17, 1852
June 22. The fireflies in the meadows are very numerous, as if they had replenished their lights from the lightning. June 22, 1852
June 25. The fireflies appear to be flying, though they may be stationary on the grass stems, for their perch and the nearness of the ground are obscured by the darkness, and now you see one here and then another there, as if it were one in motion. Their light is singularly bright and glowing to proceed from a living creature. June 25, 1852
You see one here and
another there as if it
were one in motion.
June 25, 1852
June 25. What were the firefly's light, if it were not for darkness? The one implies the other. June 25, 1852
Why the firefly's light,
if it were not for darkness?
One implies the other.
June 25, 1852
June 30. It is starlight about half an hour after sunset to-night; i. e. the first stars appear. . . .Ten or fifteen minutes after, the fireflies are observed, at first about the willows on the Causeway, where the evening is further advanced. June 30, 1852
Magically at dusk
the woods fill with fireflies and
the flute of the thrush.
zphx July 29, 2013
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, first fireflies in June
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2023
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