DLTK's Educational Activities
All in the Golden Afternoon
by Lewis Carroll
All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For
both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to
guide.
Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,
Beneath
such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To
stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?
Imperious Prima flashes
forth
Her edict to "begin it"--
In gentler tones Secunda
hopes
"There will be nonsense in it"--
While Tertia
interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.
Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The
dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast--
And half believe it
true.
And ever, as the story drained
The wells of
fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the
subject by,
"The rest next time"--"It is next time!"
The
happy voices cry.
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered
out--
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a
merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
Alice! a
childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where
Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers
Plucked in a
far-off land.
