A nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos). For the song of the nightingale, visit RSPB: Nightingale. For a picture of a glow-worm, see the Indian counterpart to Vincent Bourne’s fable, The Glow Worm and the Jackdaw, in which the poor glow-worm has a hungry jackdaw to deal with and must use a quite different approach.
‘The Nightingale and the Glow Worm’
A NIGHTINGALE, that all day long
Had cheered the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When, looking eagerly around,
He spied far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark;
So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him thus, right eloquent:
‘Did you admire my lamp,’ quoth he,
‘As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;
For ’twas the self-same power divine,
Taught you to sing and me to shine;
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night.’
The songster heard his short oration,
And warbling out his approbation,
Released him, as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.*
* Like Cowper’s verses on The Jackdaw, this poem is a translation from the Latin of Vincent Bourne (1695-1747), who many years earlier had been Cowper’s master at Westminster School. Aesop’s fable of The Lion and the Mouse tells a similar story of mutual dependence; Ramaswami Raju’s Indian fable of The Glow Worm and the Jackdaw is altogether more practical.
Précis
In Cowper’s poem, a nightingale weary from singing all day was thinking of snacking on a glow-worm when his intended meal spoke up. The glow-worm complained that he brought charm to the night as the nightingale brought charm to the day, and deserved as much respect. The bird was quite won over, and the glow-worm was spared. (57 / 60 words)