The Book of Scottish Song/Dunoon
Dunoon.
[Thomas Lyle.—Dunoon is a favourite watering-place on the shore of the firth of Clyde, in Argyleshire. "The Glow-worm," says Mr. Lyle, "on mild summer evenings, especially after a shower of rain, is to be found in great abundance among the long grass and moss between Dunoon and the Holy-Loch, where the surrounding scenery renders this singular insect doubly interesting. The female is larger than the male, and emits a beautiful light (apparently phosphorescent, but not really so,) for the purpose of attracting the male; this issues from the four last rings of the abdomen: the male has a power of emitting a feeble light, but very disproportionate to that of the female. Two or three of these insects inclosed in a glass vase, will give a light sufficient to enable a perscm to read in the darkest night. There are fifty-two species of this insect scattered over the four quarters of the globe, of which two only are found in our own country, viz. the Glow-worm and the Fire-fly."]
See the glow-worm lits her fairy lamp,
From a beam of the rising moon;
On the heathy shore at evening fall,
'Twixt Holy-Loch, and dark Dunoon:
Her fairy lamp's pale silvery glare,
From the dew-clad, moorland flower,
Invite my wandering footsteps there,
At the lonely twilight hour.
When the distant beacon's revolving light
Bids my lone steps seek the shore,
There the rush of the flow-tide's rippling wave
Meets the dash of the fisher's oar;
And the dim-seen steam-boat's hollow sound,
As she sea-ward tracks her way;
All else are asleep in the still calm night,
And robed in the misty grey.
When the glow-worm lits her elfin lamp,
And the night breeze sweeps the hill;
It's sweet, on thy rock-bound shores, Dunoon,
To wander at fency's will.
Eliza! with thee, in this solitude,
Life's cares would pass away,
Like the fleecy clouds over grey Kilmun,
At the wake of early day.