"A Boat Beneathe A Sunny Sky" By: Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carrol is hands down one of the greatest poets out there. Known for his novel Alice in Wonderland I suppose most people didn't know he wrote poetry as well. Two of his poems in particular have really spoke to me over the past year. Poetry has a funny way of doing that, speaking to you I mean. It's a lot like the lyrics to songs... lyrics for the tone deaf. So if you write songs and can't sing... turn to poetry! But anyways, one of his poems that I've thoroughly enjoyed was "A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky" In this poem he uses a dreamy description of a boat beneath the sun. I picture it in my mind as a summer sunset casting its warm rays over a white canoe. I put up a picture at the bottom of my blog that I really like that I think portrays the boat perfectly. In two stanzas Carroll inserts lines about children. He uses imagery when he says "Children three that nestle near" and he creates a warm atmosphere with his words. But in this poem he also uses imagery that sends a chill down your spine, "Autumn frosts have slain July." He speaks of a girl named Alice in this poem that haunts his dreams. This Alice is supposedly the same Alice that inspired him when writing Alice in Wonderland. Carroll had supposedly held on to a crush he had formed when he was in elementary school and had wrote about her. At the very end of the poem Carroll writes "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?" This last part is key. He expresses how childhood and life is fleeting. How it is but a moment, a whisper, a dream. So these are my thoughts on it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

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?