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 occupation,

That is know 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 in 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!