The Children’s Hour

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Between the dark and daylight,
when the night is is beginning to lower,
comes a pause in the day’s occupations
that is known as the children's hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
the patter of little feet,
the sound of a door that is opened,
and voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
descending the broad hall-stair,
grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
and Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence.
Yet I know by their merry eyes
they are plotting and planning together
to take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
a sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
they enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret.
O’er the arms and back of my chair.
If I try to escape, they surround me;
they seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
their arms about me entwine,
till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
in his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
because you have scaled the wall,
such an old moustache as I am
is not a match for you all?

I have you fast in my fortress,
and will not let you depart,
but put you down into the dungeons
in the round-tower of my heart.

And there I will keep you forever.
Yes, forever and a day,
till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
and moulder in dust away!

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