The Butterfly's Ball - frontispiece - Project Gutenberg eText 20860

''The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast'' is a poem by

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children '' The Butterfly's Ball, and the ...

, written in 1802, and telling the story of a party for insects and other small animals.

Background

Two anonymous sequels were ''The Peacock 'At Home' ''and ''The Lion's Masquerade and the Elephant's Champetre'', both initially credited to "A Lady", and describing similar parties for birds and large

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s. ''The Peacock 'At Home was very popular and the 1809 edition revealed the author to be

Catherine Ann Dorset Catherine Ann Dorset (1752 – 1834) was a British author of poems for children. She had a successful career as a writer. Dorset anonymously collaborated on several works with her sister, Charlotte, which were Catherine Ann's first publications. ...

. ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' is also the title of a 1973 picture book by

Alan Aldridge Alan Aldridge (8 July 1938 – 17 February 2017) was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He is best known for his psychedelic artwork made for books and record covers by The Beatles and The Who. Personal life Aldridge was born ...

and

William Plomer William Charles Franklyn Plomer (10 December 1903 – 20 September 1973) was a South African and British novelist, poet and literary editor. He also wrote a series of librettos for Benjamin Britten. He wrote some of his poetry under the pseud ...

, loosely based on the poem. This greatly expanded and altered the original work, focusing more on the animals' preparations for the Ball. Aldridge went on to create two more books based on the sequels; ''The Peacock Party'' and ''The Lion's Cavalcade''. An animated short based on Aldridge's illustrations, but once more focusing on the Ball itself, was made in 1974, with

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

writing the accompanying song 'Love Is All", based on the song "Love's All You Need" mentioned in the book. This was supposed to lead to a full length animated film, which did not get made. However, Glover had written a full soundtrack, which was performed and released as a rock opera, ''

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's poem of a similar title. The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's desig ...

''.Roger Glover & Guests - ''The Butterfly Ball And the Grasshopper's Feast''
''AvxHome.se''. Retrieved 2011-04-08.

References

External links

''The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast''
from Representative Poetry Online {{Gutenberg, no=20860, name=The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast

composed by Ryan Fraley Butterflys Ball and the Grasshoppers Feast