Rhyme - Caty Beth Gooding

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

BY LEWIS CARROLL

A BOAT beneath a sunny sky,                 A

Lingering onward dreamily                  B

In an evening of July —                                    A

Children three that nestle near,                       C

Eager eye and willing ear,                    C

Pleased a simple tale to hear —                       C

Long has paled that sunny sky:                        A

Echoes fade and memories die:                      A

Autumn frosts have slain July.                        A

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,      D

Alice moving under skies                     D

Never seen by waking eyes.                 D

Children yet, the tale to hear,               C

Eager eye and willing ear,                    C

Lovingly shall nestle near.                    C

In a Wonderland they lie,                     A

Dreaming as the days go by,                A

Dreaming as the summers die:                       A

Ever drifting down the stream —         E

Lingering in the golden gleam —         E

Life, what is it but a dream?                 E

Carroll, Lewis. "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173163>.

The rhyme scheme of this poem goes like this: ABA CCC AAA DDD CCC AAA EEE. The rhyme scheme seemed to me to create a rhythm and repetition that made the poem seem more desperate as it went on, maybe even made the narrator seem less sane. It gives a certain "this looks strangely familiar… that's because we've been here before" sort of feeling to the