Lewis Caroll was a mathematics professor who stuttered when in the presence of anyone except young children.

LC took the 3 young daughters of his boss on a boat ride down a canal on July 4, 1862, in a rowboat traveling on the canal from Folly Bridge, Oxford, to Godstow for a picnic outing, 10-year-old Alice asked Charles Dodgson (who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll) to entertain her and her sisters, Edith (aged 8) and Lorina (13), with a story. As the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed the boat, Dodgson told the girls a story about Alice and her adventures after she fell down a rabbit-hole into Wonderland.

At the end of the day, the children begged him to write down the story for them. So he did.

– Season 3, episode 1, Great Canal Journeys, London to the Sea (Amazon Prime)

A boat, beneath a sunny sky
by Lewis Carrol, 1871

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?

(1871, Through the Looking-Glass)

“In ‘A Boat, Beneath a Sunny Sky,’ Carroll conveys the implacability of time through images of its consequences – the ‘paling’ of a ‘sunny sky,’ – the changing of a season, and the loss of wonder or innocence that often accompanies the transition to adulthood.” – Andea Siso