Junior Class 5 Answered

The poem The rock and the bubble is written by American novelist and poet Louisa May Alcott. The entire poem is a kind of a personification where a rock and a bubble are having a conversation.  

The poem begins with a ‘big brown rock’ standing up in the sea with the waves merrily dancing at its feet. Once it so happens that a little bubble comes sailing by and demands that the rock make way for him to pass. The bubble boasts of how it is superior and better than the ‘clumsy brown stone’ with its ‘rainbow-robe’ and ‘glittering form’. However, the rock is unperturbed and calmly explains to the bubble that it had always been standing there and that its ‘sturdy form’ had never been ‘overthrown’. The rock further explains that neither the air nor the sea have been able to move him, so how can it move for a tiny little bubble? This only makes the bubble angrier and with its foolish pride it insists that the rock ‘shall move’ for it. The temper and the tantrums of the rock do not affect the bubble at all. However, the bubble keeps calling names to the bubble and calls itself the ‘queen of the ocean’ and the next instant breaks, while the rock stands there as it was. The sea birds sitting on the tree, who have been a witness to the incident between the bubble and the rock, tell their little ones that one should not be like the bubble, ‘headstrong, rude, and vain seeking one’s gain’, but rather be like the rock ‘steadfast, true, and strong, yet cheerful and kind, and firm against wrong’.