A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

By Lewis Carroll

A BOAT beneath a sunny sky,

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July —

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear —

Long has paled that sunny sky:

Echoes fade and memories die:

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

Alice moving under skies

Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream —

Lingering in the golden gleam —

Life, what is it but a dream?

I typically don’t enjoy reading poems very much. I find them hard to follow most of the time, and difficult to grasp the concept. “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll changed some of the mindset I had about poems. It was easy to understand, the rhyming helped it have more rhythm then some poems do. When I read the first few lines of this poem it reminded me of the summers I spent at my grandfather’s lake house in Georgia. When I go there over the summer, we usually take his boat out and travel around the different lakes and through the scenic landscape. Were always there for Fourth of July, which was also something in common with Carroll’s poem. Maybe that’s another reason I enjoyed the poem; because it was relatable and brought back good memories. It made me feel nostalgic.

I liked the line in the second stanza, “pleased a simple tale to hear”. It tells the reader that the author is telling a story to three children, and how they are happy to hear about it. Another line I enjoyed was in one of the last few stanzas, “In a Wonderland they lie, dreaming as the days go by, dreaming as the summers die”. I think here the author is writing about adult’s day dreaming back to when they were kids, and how they enjoyed the summers on the boat. Maybe she’s speaking about herself here. The very last line also caught my eye, “life, what is it but a dream?” Is this a famous quote? I feel like I have heard it before. I think what the Carroll is trying to say here is that we spend so much of our life day dreaming about our past, future or anything really.

Poet Bio

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  Lewis Carroll

  1832–1898