The Children's hour

A Quiet Evening
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
that is knows 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.

An American Girl Smiles Down from the Stair Bannisters
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!


Two Little Girls on a Sofa

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!


Little Girl Sitting in Blue Arm Chair

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 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!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
The most popular American poet of the nineteenth century, Longfellow is well remembered for works such as "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Song of Hiawatha"
This is one of his most famous shorter poems.