Here Be Dragonflies
A scene that we might witness today that has not changed in hundreds of millions of years...
Summary
A brief, almost imagist piece: a scene at a pond or marsh at early morning, dragonflies hunting midges in warm rising air. The synopsis notes that this scene "has not changed in hundreds of millions of years" — dragonflies are among the oldest winged insects, virtually unchanged since the Carboniferous. The song's minimalism is its argument: the world was doing this long before language, and will continue.
Lyrics
[Verse]
Here be dragonflies
Ancient swamp
Warm air rising
Little midges into the air
Early morning sun
Points them out like pinpricks
Damselflies hover
[Chorus]
Here be dragonflies
Here be dragonflies
Here be dragonflies
Here be dragonflies
Detail
Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) have existed for approximately 300 million years, making them one of the oldest extant insect orders. The Carboniferous Meganeura had wingspans of up to 65 centimetres. The modern dragonfly is functionally identical in its hunting method — aerial interception of smaller insects — to its Permian ancestors.
The song's title riffs on "here be dragons" — the phrase used on historical maps to mark unknown or dangerous territory. Replacing "dragons" with "dragonflies" shifts the register from myth to biology, from terror to wonder, and from the unknown to the thoroughly known but rarely attended to. The pond at dawn is not a margin of the map; it is the map's oldest continuous feature.
The four-beat repetition of the chorus — identical each time — mirrors the dragonfly's own biological constancy. No development, no resolution. Just the fact, repeated.
Cross-references
- Song of the Day (album)