Sunday 25 August 2013

dragonfly

This beautiful creature spent an hour sitting by my back door this afternoon. A female  Aeshnea Cyanea I believe*. A Hawker, a member of the dragonfly family.


The Dragonfly

Now, when my roses are half buds, half flowers,
And loveliest, the king of flies has come-
It was a fleeting visit, all too brief;
In three short minutes he has seen them all,
And rested, too, upon an apple tree.

There, his round shoulders humped with emeralds,
A gorgeous opal crown set on his head,
And all those shining honours to his breast-
‘My garden is a lovely place’ thought I,
‘But is it worthy of such a guest?’

He rested there, upon the apple leaf -
‘See, see,’ I cried amazed, ‘his opal crown,
And all those emeralds clustered around his head!’
‘His breast, my dear, how lovely was his breast-’
The voice of my Beloved quickly said.

‘See, see his gorgeous crown, that shines
With all those jewels bulging round its rim-’
I cried aloud at night, in broken rest.
Back came the answer quickly, in my dream-
‘His breast, my dear, how lovely was his breast!’
(W. H. Davies)
* more than happy to be proved wrong, of course! No expert me.

5 comments:

Zouk Delors said...

You wait ages for a blogpost, then two come along at once...

When I visited my dad's grave a year after he died, after standing over it for a while, I retired to a bench in the corner of the yard to smoke me a J. While I was sitting (ok, lying) there a beautiful dragonfly landed on my shirt, remaining there for several minutes. I did actually start to think about reincarnation.

Dave Leeke said...

Hi Zouk,

There are lots of stories of butterflies turning up at funerals which often prompts a grudging belief in reincarnation.

I have a little story from our recent holiday that I'll possibly write tonight. I guess I need to make up for lost time.


Zouk Delors said...

Hi Dave

Forgot the spookiest bit: it didn't just land on my shirt, it landed at the correct angle so it was looking straight in my face.

Zouk Delors said...

Don't know if you've ever been eyeball to eyeball with a dragonfly, but it's actually quite scary - especially if it appears to be making gnashing movements with its mouthparts. They don't blink either.

Dave Leeke said...

Funny enough, Zouk, I haven't. However, any insect tends to give me the willies.

Lovely to look at them if they're attractive (wasps and BLOODY FLIES aren't) but I don't tend to enjoy too close an interaction with them.

You're describing a Dr Who creature as far as I'm concerned!