The Children's Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 19, 2014   The Children’s Hour   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Between the dark and the daylight,       When the night 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 mustache 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 dungeon       In the round-tower of my heart.   And there will I keep you forever,       Yes, forever and a day, Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,       And moulder in dust away!            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “The Children’s Hour” was first published in the September 1860 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27, 1807. Among the numerous books of poems he published in his lifetime are The Song of Hiawatha and Voices of the Night. He died on March 24, 1882 at the age of seventy-five. Poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow   Collected Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (BiblioLife, 2007) "Children in a Field" by Angela Shaw "Dear Pretty Youth" by Thomas Shadwell "Humanimal [Feral children are fatty]" by Bhanu Kapil Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038