will-o'-the-wisp - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about will-o'-the-wisp Printer Friendly
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will-o'-the-wisp

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will-o'-the-wisp

Light sometimes seen over marshy ground, believed to be burning gas containing methane from decaying organic matter.

An Australian scientist put forward the hypothesis in 1995 that the phenomenon may be caused by barn owls, which sometimes develop a ghostly glow due to a light-emitting honey fungus that they pick up from rotting trees.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Here in thy loneliness the eglantine Weaves her sweet tapestries above thy head, While blow across thy bed, Moist with the dew of heaven, the breezes chill: Fire-fly, will-o'-the-wisp, and wandering star Glow in thy gloom, and naught is heard but the far Chanting of woodman and shepherd from the hill, Naught but the startled bird is seen Soaring away in the moonland sheen, Or the hulk of the scampering beast that fears Their plaintive lays as, to and fro, The pallid singers go.
There was quite a bewildering succession of drives, dances, picnics and boating parties, all expressively lumped together by Phil under the head of "jamborees"; Alec and Alonzo were so constantly on hand that Anne wondered if they ever did anything but dance attendance on that will-o'-the-wisp of a Phil.
T ain't ABUSE exactly, I know, or 't wouldn't be to some o' your elephant-hided young ones; but to that little tender will-o'-the-wisp a hard word 's like a lash.
 
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