Waxing poetic in the firefly glow

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Posted on Jun 01 2016 in General

Purdue University entomologist Tom Turpin tells a sweet tale of the allure of fireflies and the memories they can instill for a lifetime.

He said he received a phone call at his campus office in West Lafayette one day, maybe 10-15 years ago. It was from an elderly couple of expatriated Hoosiers living in California. They said they’d grown up in Indiana and always loved seeing fireflies as kids.

Then they got married and moved to California where they had lived their lives.

But where they live in California, there were no fireflies — at least the kind that light up. (Turpin explains fireflies are found around the world, but not all are the torch-bearing beetles that light up, what he refers to as “lightning bug fireflies.”)

Though they had returned to Indiana to visit family many times through the years, they always seemed to miss the time when fireflies were in the fields and forests of the night. This elderly couple wanted to make a special trip to Indiana before they died just to see one last time the beauty of the summer fields spangled with flashing firefly light that they remembered from their youth. They wanted to know from Turpin when would be the best time of year to come.

That’s the amazing power and sense of wonder these tiny little insects hold within our culture. But the truest test, the touchstone of any natural or cultural phenomenon, is what the poets and songwriters have had to say.

“Many are the poets who have waxed eloquently about fireflies,” noted Turpin in one of his past “On Six Legs” columns. “I’m not surprised. There are very few people who aren’t intrigued by these flashers of the insect world once they have seen them.”

And how! Google firefly or lightning bug in poetry and song, and almost 9 million hits are found.

“Fireflies” or “lightning bug” … “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare might have asked. By any other, “bioluminescent beetle,” “torch-bearing beetle,” “taillighted beetles,” “beckoning beetle beckons,” they’d still glow just as bright. “By either name these bioluminescent beetles have been a delight for children to capture on a warm summer night,” Turpin remarked in rhyme.

While fireflies take their place among the most scientifically interesting insects because of the fascinating chemical combination they control in their abdomen and the incredible high-efficiency, bright light they give off with so little heat, they also touch a deep place in the human heart and soul. They fire the imagination and inspire poetry and song. Here’s a sampling gathered by Turpin and Electric Consumer’s own muses

The relationship of children and fireflies was included in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Hiawatha’s Childhood.  Longfellow wrote:

“Little flitting, white-fire insect,
Little dancing, white-fire creature,
Light me with your little candle,
Ere upon my bed I lay me,
Ere in sleep I close my eyelids!”

Another poet who recounted childhood memories of fireflies was Harriet Prescott Spoffort.  The first stanza of her poem The Fire-flies in the Wheat goes:

“Ah, never of a summer night
Will life again be half as sweet
As in that country of delight
Where straying, staying, with happy feet
We watched the fire-flies in the wheat.”

Many times, as poets are wont to do, fireflies are included in poems to accent the rural nature of a poem. From “The Hoosier Poet” James Whitcomb Riley we read the following in Old-Fashioned Roses:

“The toadstool bulges through the weeds,
And lavishly to left and right
The fireflies, like golden seeds,
Are sown about the night.”

Robert Frost in his Fireflies in the Garden writes:

“Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,”

Ogden Nash claims in his poem The Firefly that:

“The firefly’s flame
Is something for which science has no name.”

“Not so, Mr. Nash,” noted Turpin. “With apologies to the poet:

The firefly’s flame is in essence
A great example of bioluminescence!”

While poetry and fireflies seem to go hand in hand, let’s not overlook their place in popular music. Perhaps the most famous is Johnny Mercer’s adaptation of an old German song about “Glowworms” that became a hit in the 1950s. Europeans use the generic “glowworm” for both the firefly larvae and the adult, while in North America, we generally call only the flightless larvae “glowworms, noted Turpin. In the song, the singer is referring to the adult firefly.

“Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Lead us lest too far we wander
Love’s sweet voice is callin’ yonder
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer
Hey, there don’t get dimmer, dimmer
Light the path below, above
And lead us on to love

Glow little glow-worm, fly of fire
Glow like an incandescent wire
Glow for the female of the species
Turn on the AC and the DC
This night could use a little brightnin’
Light up you little ol’ bug of lightnin’
When you gotta glow, you gotta glow
Glow little glow-worm, glow

Glow little glow-worm, glow and glimmer
Swim through the sea of night, little swimmer
Thou aeronautical boll weevil
Illuminate yon woods primeval
See how the shadows deep and darken
You and your chick should get to sparkin’
I got a gal that I love so
Glow little glow-worm, glow

Glow little glow-worm, turn the key on
You are equipped with taillight neon
You got a cute vest-pocket *Mazda*
Which you can make both slow and faster
I don’t know who you took the shine to
Or who you’re out to make a sign to
I got a gal that I love so
Glow little glow-worm, glow
Glow little glow-worm, glow
Glow little glow-worm, glow
Glow little glow-worm, glow.”

Google “songs about fireflies” and some 700 lyrics will be found. Faith Hill has a song called “Fireflies.” Uriah Heep has “Firefly” and so does Ed Sheeran.

“Torch ballads” are songs about unrequited love, carrying a torch for a lover. And that’s what the little lights are all about. Fireflies carry their torch for a mate, literally. The female, usually resting on a leaf or a blade of grass, will call out with a flash or two into the night. A passing male of the same firefly species will respond with his own series of Morse code flashes: “Hey, good looking! Whatcha doin’ tonight?” (Each type of firefly has its own flashing codes.) She might respond, “Come on down and see.” And, on that some enchanted evening, as Rodgers and Hammerstein might say, across the crowded field, they find their mates. Or, if Frank Sinatra is more of your liking, maybe they are just strangers in the night, exchanging flashes, lovers at first light, and dooby doooby doo …

Owl City, an eclectic electronic band headed by Minnesota musician Adam Young, had a multi-platinum hit a few years ago with a song called “Fireflies” in which he also called them by their other name.

“You would not believe your eyes
If 10 million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep

‘Cause they fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You’d think me rude but I would just stand and stare

I’d like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems

‘Cause I’d get a thousand hugs
From 10 thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance

A foxtrot above my head
A sock hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread

I’d like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)

Leave my door open just a crack
Please take me away from here
‘Cause I feel like such an insomniac
Please take me away from here
Why do I tire of counting sheep
Please take me away from here
When I’m far too tired to fall asleep

To ten million fireflies
I’m weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell (said farewell)

But I’ll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
‘Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar (jar, jar)

I’d like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)

I’d like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly
It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake when I’m asleep
‘Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)”

 Miranda Lambert mentions fireflies in her song, “Me and Charlie Talking”:

“Me and Charlie boy used to go walking,
Sittin’ in the woods behind my house
When being lovers meant a stolen kiss
And holding hands with nobody else around
Charlie said he wanted to get married
But we were only ten so we’d have to wait
He said we’d never let our love run dry like so many do these days
So we treat our love like a firefly,
Like it only gets to shine for a little while
Catch it in a mason jar and with holes in the top
And run like hell to show it off
Oh promises we made when we’d go walking
That’s just me and Charlie talking …”

  And Carrie Underwood brings out the romance of fireflies and crickets in her song, “Heartbeat.”

“I love it when we’re at a party in a down-town crowd
But I can hear you call me, baby, with the music up loud
Red wine, good times, no I don’t mind being with everyone else
And then there’s nights like tonight that I, I want you to myself
And tonight I wanna drive so far we’ll only find static on the radio
And we can’t see those city lights and I love the way you look in a firefly glow
Saying everything without making a sound, a cricket choir in the background, underneath a harvest moon
Standing on your shoes in my bare feet, dancing to the rhythm of your heartbeat …”

While fireflies may seem more rural, don’t overlook the city folk. The Motown group The Temptations had this to say about fireflies:

“Firefly, firefly:
Shine your light tonight.
Assist the moon and stars
In helping us

To ease our troubled minds.
Firefly, firefly:
Golden night of serenity, yeah;
Show us the light naturally,
And maybe she won’t worry
When there ain’t nothing I can do.
When sea runs dry,
And the stars fall from the sky;
She’s a vulnerable flower,

And she believes in me.
Even when I had to lie,
I shouldn’t have lied
To make the world feel alright.
Firefly, firefly.
Um, um, um, sometimes I feel
I have the weight of the world
On my shoulders, But knowing the
Strength she sees in me,
I smile because she believes me.
Firefly, firefly:
Golden night of serenity;
Show me the light naturally,
And maybe she won’t worry
When ain’t nothing I can do.

When sea runs dry,
And the stars fall from the sky;
She’s a vulnerable flower,
And she believes in me.
Even when I had to lie,
I shouldn’t have lied
To make the world feel alright.
Firefly, firefly.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, firefly,
You make the world feel alright.”

We could go on forever with fireflies, but here are a couple of firefly references from two famous songwriters. From Paul Simon’s “St. Judy’s Comet”:

“Little sleepy boy
Do you know what time it is?
Well the hour of your bedtime’s|Long been past
And though I know you’re fighting it
I can tell when you rub your eyes
You’re fading fast
Fading fast

Won’t you run come see St. Judy’s Comet
Roll across the skies
And leave a spray of diamonds
In its wake
I long to see St. Judy’s Comet
Sparkle in your eyes
When you awake

Little boy
Won’t you lay your body down
Little boy
Won’t you close your weary eyes
Ain’t nothing flashing but the fireflies

Well I sang it once
And I sang it twice
I’m going to sing it three times more
Going to stay til your resistance
Is overcome
Cause if I can’t sing my boy to sleep
Well it makes your famous daddy
Look so dumb

Won’t you run come see St. Judy’s Comet
Roll across the skies
And leave a spray of diamonds
In its wake
I long to see St. Judy’s Comet
Sparkle in your eyes
When you awake

Little boy, little boy
Won’t you lay your body down
Little boy, little boy
Won’t you close your weary eyes
Ain’t nothing flashing but the fireflies

Oo Little sleepy boy
Do you know what time it is?
Well the hour of your bedtime’s
Long been past
Though I know you’re fighting it
I can tell when you rub your eyes
That you’re fading fast.”

And finally, from one of the great troubadours of the outdoors, Canadian Gordon Lightfoot begins his song “Sea of Tranquility” about the beauty and peacefulness of the woodlands this way:

“There’s fireflies dancing in the cool evening breeze. There’s love and romancin’ as nice as you please …”

When Indiana is expected again to take up the momentous issue of fireflies as our state insect, it’s easy to see how school kids might look at the blue field and golden stars and torch of the state flag … and think of the torch-bearing beetles in the dusky blue fields. And they might think of how this quote from a Native American Indian chief can even relate to Indiana’s official seal that features an American buffalo:

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” —Crowfoot Siksika Chief, 1830-1890.

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