"The Bubble"

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"The Bubble"

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)

c.1887

Illustration for a poem of the same title

Allingham, facing p.62

The poem is a slight one but not without some subtlety, and a certain poignancy. The bubble is seen as a "pretty Planet" or "Floating sphere," a "World as light as feather" which vanishes when touched, "leaving but a sprinkle / As of tears" (Allingham 61).

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This quite mannered illustration shows two identically dressed girls staring fixedly at the bubble, either indeed seeing a world in it, or waiting expectantly for the moment when it bursts. One girl holds the bowl of liquid, the other the pipe for dipping into it and blowing the bubbles. The one on the left shows Greenaway's tendency to draw both feet in the same way: "several of the figures she drew appear to have two right feet" (Carpenter and Prichard 226).

Bibliography

Allingham, William. Rhymes for the Young Folk. London: Cassell, 1887. Internet Archive.. Web. 13 May 2013.

Carpenter, Humphrey, and Mari Prichard. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Corrected ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985. Print.

Last modified 13 May 2013