Between the dark and the daylight, <br /> When the night is beginning to lower, <br />Comes a pause in the day's occupations, <br /> That is known as the Children's Hour. <br /> <br />I hear in the chamber above me <br /> The patter of little feet, <br />The sound of a door that is opened, <br /> And voices soft and sweet. <br /> <br />From my study I see in the lamplight, <br /> Descending the broad hall stair, <br />Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, <br /> And Edith with golden hair. <br /> <br />A whisper, and then a silence: <br /> Yet I know by their merry eyes <br />They are plotting and planning together <br /> To take me by surprise. <br /> <br />A sudden rush from the stairway, <br /> A sudden raid from the hall! <br />By three doors left unguarded <br /> They enter my castle wall! <br /> <br />They climb up into my turret <br /> O'er the arms and back of my chair; <br />If I try to escape, they surround me; <br /> They seem to be everywhere. <br /> <br />They almost devour me with kisses, <br /> Their arms about me entwine, <br />Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen <br /> In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine! <br /> <br />Do you think, o blue-eyed banditti, <br /> Because you have scaled the wall, <br />Such an old mustache as I am <br /> Is not a match for you all! <br /> <br />I have you fast in my fortress, <br /> And will not let you depart, <br />But put you down into the dungeon <br /> In the round-tower of my heart. <br /> <br />And there will I keep you forever, <br /> Yes, forever and a day, <br />Till the walls shall crumble to ruin, <br /> And moulder in dust away!<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-children-s-hour-2/
