What phrase names the prefatory poem linked to the Alice story's origin?

“All in the golden afternoon” is the prefatory poem linked to the origin of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll placed the poem before the novel as an account of the summer boating excursion during which he first told Alice’s story. On 4 July 1862, Carroll and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed along the river Isis with the three Liddell sisters: Lorina, Alice, and Edith.

The poem’s “Prima,” “Secunda,” and “Tertia” represent the sisters, while its closing stanzas describe the improvised tale being continued until the group reached home. Alice Pleasance Liddell later encouraged Carroll to write the story down, leading to the manuscript first called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.

The poem is sometimes confused with a poem or song from a later chapter, such as “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” or with “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky,” the closing poem of Through the Looking-Glass. “All in the golden afternoon” is specifically the preface to the first Alice book.