aph-japan reblogged
"Escape at Bedtime"
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out Through the blinds and the windows and bars; And high overhead and all moving about, There were thousands of millions of stars. There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree, Nor of people in church or the Park, As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me, And that glittered and winked in the dark. The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all, And the star of the sailor, and Mars, These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall Would be half full of water and stars. They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries, And they soon had me packed into bed; But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes, And the stars going round in my head.
The poem is by Robert Louis Stevenson: one of those ones that just resonate...
The image is a bit rare. I was delighted to stumble across it online in the NYPL Digital Collections, as I've got a framed copy of it—a greeting card from the time when the Green Tiger Press (now doing business as Laughing Elephant) first started doing note cards featuring the work of little-known children's illustrators.
The artist is Henriette Willebeek le Mair, who was known in the early 1900s for her precision and delicacy of line and the beauty of her colors. She was the illustrator of the 1931 edition of Stevenson's classic A Child's Garden of Verses; the image above is her illustration for "Escape at Bedtime."
#grandma tag#diane duane#poetry#art#art history#lit history#literature#childrens literature#childrens media#age#aging#elderly#elder support#sobert louis stevenson#h willebeek le mair#starscapes#landscape art#there is no timeline#traditional art#gorgeous art#things that make me emotional#this is also what we need more of in all media#im right#i havent even reached 2028 timeline yet#(Im nowhere near this age yet but even I can understand the impact and intent behind the themes)