Lyric Poem · For Kids
The Children's Hour
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1860
1Between the dark and the daylight,
2When the night is beginning to lower,
3Comes a pause in the day's occupation,
4That is know as the children's hour.
5I hear in the chamber above me
6The patter of little feet,
7The sound of a door that is opened,
8And voices soft and sweet.
9From my study I see in the lamplight,
10Descending the broad hall stair,
11Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
12And Edith with golden hair.
13A whisper and then a silence:
14Yet I know by their merry eyes,
15They are plotting and planning together,
16To take me by surprise.
17A sudden rush from the stairway,
18A sudden raid from the hall!
19By three doors left unguarded
20They enter my castle wall!
21They climb up into my turret
22O'er the arms and back of my chair;
23If I try to escape, they surround me,
24They seem to be everywhere.
25They almost devour me with kisses,
26Their arms about me entwine,
27Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
28In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
29Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
30Because you have scaled the wall,
31Such an old mustache as I am
32Is not a match for you all?
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“The Children's Hour” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/the-childrens-hour
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Children's Hour
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Published
- 1860
- Length
- 40 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- For Kids, Family, Happiness
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 40 lines · 10 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 7-10 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Children's Hour by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1860
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 b196d9652adfabb8…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.