Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll
A Farewell
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?
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In this poem, Carroll is recalling the day of July 4, 1862, when he and a fellow cleric took the three Liddell girls on a boating expedition up the Thames. It was on that trip that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was started. The poem is actually an acrostic, where the initial letters of each line spell out the full name of Alice Pleasance Liddell
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