Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky Analysis
A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky Analysis
Ms. Anderson
3 February 2011
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky Analysis
2. 1872
3. On the surface level the poem is about the narrator telling three children a story.
4. The speaker is the poet (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), who’s penname is Lewis
Carroll.
5. The poem appears to be for Alice Pleasance Liddell, a youth with who he
6. An evening of July
7. Outdoors on a boat
8. The poem addresses how children grow up and lose their innocence, but then it
reverts back to how as youths they are able to imagine and dream carelessly.
9. The poem in the first two stanzas and the fifth stanza the tone is affectionate,
enthusiastic, and lighthearted. The third and fourth stanzas are much darker,
grim, and melancholy. The last two stanzas are again upbeat and very dreamy,
10. First Stanza: This describes the setting as they languidly ride a boat.
Second Stanza: The three Liddell children prepare to hear a story from Lewis
Carroll.
Third Stanza: Carroll discusses how time passes and how people age.
Donadio 2
Fourth Stanza: Carroll talks of how Alice haunts him like a ghost.
Sixth and Seventh Stanza: These talk about how children dream and let their
12. The poem is acrostic spelling out Alice Pleasance Liddell, the girl with who he
seemingly has a delirious obsession. There is repetition in the second and fifth
stanza of the “children” who have a “tale to hear” with “eager eye and willing
ear.” Also there is repetition of “dreaming as the . . . ” in lines 17 and 18 and then
the poem ends with “dream.” Lastly, the second and second to last lines both start
with “lingering.” There is also light alliteration in “sunny sky,” “nestle near,” and
“golden gleam.” There is metonymy of the three children’s eyes and ears in
“eager eye and willing ear” (which also displays assonance). There is also a
13. The third stanza has a very strong, deathlike image. It discusses the change of
time from sunny summer to cold fall. The line “Autumn frost have slain July”
14. My favorite line is the last, “Life, what is it but a dream?” The build up to this
line is written so prettily and of course dreamily. This line was also a good
ending sentence, which calls attention to the elusive, imaginative, and detached
15. I chose this poem, because I am an Alice in Wonderland enthusiast. I also liked