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?
Indeed, one of the most famous of acrostic poets was Lewis Carroll; mathematician, logician, author, and poet.
Still she haunts me…
And now for less poetic musings: Whether history believes his preoccupation with one Alice Pleasance Liddell and her siblings was merely avuncular or something much more distasteful depends, it seems, on the times. The Guardian, the BBC, the Times of London and other newspapers have swayed back and forth in opinion pieces over the last fifteen years. American news outlets additionally clutched pearls over the question of whether or not the grinning Cheshire and its nonsense narrative was not some secret signal pointing to a demented drug-fest which would somehow be communicable through the pages. (Ban the book! WHO WILL SAVE THE CHILDREN???) So, the question revolves past for another year: Were Alice’s adventures just that – adventure? Or should wise booklovers put this one on a higher shelf? Do we judge books by their authors now? If so… we may have a very full top shelf, very soon…
I would have once said that a book is what you make of it — but I think a children’s book is what a child makes of it, in this case. If your little one isn’t bored by queens made out of playing cards, well, that’s just grand. For myself, I was never a nonsense child, and this, like Jabberwocky or The Wizard of Oz, or pretty much all of Edward Lear, didn’t quite do it for me. (Shh! I know. The shame!) As for Lewis himself… there are some people in this world who are sweet and strange — and some who are merely strange. Most are harmless. For that other small percent, I hope the Liddells taught their wee girls to speak softly and to carry a right big stick. And USE THAT THING.