All in the golden afternoon...

This poem depicts the story of how, during the summer of 1862 and in the company of the three Liddell sisters and Reverend Robinson Duckworth, Lewis Carroll composed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.^[1] It is from the first-hand accounts of those summer days that the background for this poem becomes clearer.

Alice Pleasance Liddell was age 10 at the time that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) first described life in Wonderland. Alice and her two sisters spent much of their free time with Carroll and Duckworth.^[1] During the summer, the group would often take expeditions up the Isis branch of the Thames river, complete with picnic baskets and lessons in the art of rowing. During one of these excursions the first telling of Alice's adventures takes place. The story would have faded away had not Alice insisted that the tales be written down especially for her.^[5]

The first copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (then titled Alice's Adventures Under Ground) was a handwritten volume given personally to Alice Liddell, who inspired the main character in the fantastical tales. When the story was about to be published as a book Carroll added the poem as a preface. He felt that his tale was a bit frightening for sensitive, young children, and he hoped that the poem would soften the fearfulness of the story and present a gateway into Wonderland. In doing so, Carroll dropped the original dedication to Alice Liddell which had read: "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer Day." Carroll did, however, insert the last stanza of the poem as a special message to her, a nod to their shared experience in the creation of Wonderland.^[6]

This poem closely follows what actually happened during those summer outings, according to Alice Liddell. In the fifth stanza, the "weary one" refers to Carroll himself, whom Alice recalls saying, "And that's all till next time" to which she and her sisters would respond with, "Ah but it is next time."^[7] These snippets also help corroborate the rest of the history behind the poem. Additionally, Carroll and Alice cite that the day of the excursion described by the poem was "burning" hot; ironically, however, the day that they mention was cloudy, rainy and not particularly "golden."^[1][7][8]

The style of Carroll’s poems, including “All in the Golden Afternoon,” were considered to emulate a more traditional and, as some considered even in his own time, outdated form of poetry. Readers at this time would have been looking for poetry full of wit, irony, and the expression of conflict, but in accordance with the poets that he most admired, such as Tennyson and the Rossettis, Carroll's poetry embodied the principles of beauty and wisdom. This poem in particular contains many of the standard themes of this older, romantic form of poetry—including a dreamy, picturesque landscape and a presupposed listener.

William Madden suggests that Carroll chose this outdated form of poetry for a purpose—the poems were not meant to stand alone, but to be a framework for the main piece of literature, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The poem puts the reader in the right frame of mind to interpret the themes in the novel—it is a compliment to his “work of nonsense.” Without the context of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the poem lacks meaning.^[9]