A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

Lewis Carroll

Teacher card

Published: 1871, in Through the Looking-Glass
Length: 21 lines, 108 words, 1 word in 15 is long
Year band: Reading load: Years 5–6. A guide from word length, not a curriculum level.
Themes: birthday, love, retirement, sun
Time: 5–10 min, depending on the activity

The text

A boat beneath a sunny sky,Lingering onward dreamilyIn 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 skiesNever 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?

Lewis Carroll (died 1898), Through the Looking-Glass (1871), lines 4065–4091 of Project Gutenberg ebook #12. Public domain in Australia: the author died before 1955. Copied word for word and checked against the ebook.

What to do with it

One link and one task line for each activity. Send a student the one you want them to do, or print this page and hand it round; each link has a QR code.

Its lines are dealt for names in posy cardsin posy · 21 lines · about 5–10 min
Task for students (you can change the sentence before you print; nothing is saved)See how posy takes lines from this poem, then make a card for someone using them.
See how posy takes lines from this poem, then make a card for someone using them.
posy.popplepoetry.com/sources#ca-boat
Its lines are dealt for the sky in the weather poemsin weatherline · 21 lines · about 5–10 min
Task for students (you can change the sentence before you print; nothing is saved)See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
weatherline.popplepoetry.com/sources#ca-boat

Send the whole hand-out

This page’s link. Students open it, read the text and pick what to do; nothing asks them to sign in.

Link for the whole text

https://popplepoetry.com/find/carroll-boat-beneath-a-sunny-sky · popplepoetry.com