t and in shadow,
The Bayard of the meadow.

The reference to Tithonus is a reference of course to a subject afterwards
beautifully elaborated in another poem by Tennyson, the great poem of
"Tithonus." The Bayard here referred to was the great French model of
perfect chivalry, and is sometimes called the last of the feudal knights.
He was said to be without fear and without blame. You may remember that he
was killed by a ball from a gun--it was soon after the use of artillery in
war had been introduced; and his dying words were to the effect that he
feared there was now an end of great deeds, because men had begun to fight
from a distance with machines instead of fighting in the old knightly and
noble way with sword and spear. The grasshopper, covered with green plates
and bearing so many little sharp spines upon its long limbs, seems to have
suggested to Tennyson the idea of a fairy knight in green armour.

As I said before, England is poor in singing insects, while America is
rich in them--almost, perhaps, as rich as Japan, although you will not
find as many different kinds of singing insects in any one state or
district. The singing insects of America are peculiar to particular
localities. But the Eastern states have perhaps the most curious insect of
this kind. It is called the Katydid. This name is spelt either Katydid, or
Catydid--though the former spelling is preferable. Katy, or Katie, is the
abbreviation of the name Catherine; very few girls are called by the full
name Catherine, also spelt Katherine; because the name is long and
unmusical, their friends address them usually as Katy, and their
acquaintances, as Kate. Well, the insect of which I am speaking, a kind of
_semi_, makes a sound resembling the sound of the words "Katie did!" Hence
the name--one of the few corresponding to the names given to the Japanese
_semi_, such as _tsuku-tsuku-boshi_, or _minmin-semi_. The most
interesting composition upon this cicada is by Oliver Wendell Holmes, but
it is of the lighter sort of verse, with a touch of humour in it. I shall
quote a few verses only, as the piece contains some allusions that would
require explanation at considerable length.

I love to hear thine earnest voice,
Wherever thou art hid,
Thou testy little dogmatist,
Thou pretty Katydid!
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks,--
Old gentlefolks are they,--
Thou say'st an undisputed thing
In such a solemn way.

* *