Down The Stream

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER NINE.

And now for another change of pace. Diana Crowfeather thinks:

"How good it'll be, floatin' quietly down the river with Axor..." (p. 294)

This is almost entirely a personal association but that is part of the experience of reading a rich text. I recently committed to memory one of the best short poems in English:

(Image copied from here.)

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky

By Lewis Carroll

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?

-copied from here.

Alice Pleasance Liddell drifts; Diana Crowfeather floats:

"...under skies

"Never seen by waking eyes."

We thank Lewis Carroll and Poul Anderson.