Poem by Charles Tennyson Turner

Calvus to a Fly

Ah! little fly, alighting fitfully
In the dim dawn on this bare head of mine,
Which spreads a white and gleaming track for thee,
When chairs and dusky wardrobes cease to shine.
Though thou are irksome, let me not complain;
Thy foolish passion for my hairless head
Will spend itself, when these dark hours are sped,
And thou shalt seek the sunlight on the pane.
But still beware! thou art on dangerous ground:
An angry sonnet, or a hasty hand,
May slander thee, or crush thee: thy shrill sound
And constant touch may shake my self-command:
And thou mayst perish in that moment's spite,
And die a martyr to thy love of light. 

1. The South-Foreland Electric Light
2. The Hydraulic Ram, or The Influence of Sound on Mood
3. Silkworms and Spiders
4. The Sonneteer to the Sea-Shell
5. On the Eclipse of the Moon of October 1865

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