Little Boy Blue

The Innocence of Childhood - Do We Have to Grow Up So Soon?

Billy boy blue, come blow me your horn,
The sheeps’ in the meadow, the cows’ in the corn;
Is that the way you mind your sheep,
Under the Haycock fast asleep?

In this early version, Greenaway presents an interesting variant on the rhyme, particularly with the replacement of the word “Little” with “Billy.”

Greenaway is well-known for her idealized representations of Victorian childhood. “Her dreamy little figures seem almost melancholy as they prance through the English countryside unaware of time or place. . . They are an outcome of her unwillingness to leave childhood behind.” 1 Indeed, the boy does represent a rather melancholy figure, placed as he is with his face to the haystack. We could easily mistake him for a girl, with his feminine dress and hidden expression. Has he simply lost track “of time or place”? Perhaps he is exhausted from too much work and not enough time to just be a child.

Could the verse represent society scolding him for not being ready to grow up and take on responsibility? Should he be ready?

1 Women Children’s Book Illustrators—Kate Greenaway, 1846-1901. Online resource

http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Greenaway.html