The Children’s Hour – poemat wydany w 1860, jego autorem jest Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poemat ukazał się po raz pierwszy we wrześniowym wydaniu gazety The Atlantic Monthly. Utwór mówi o idealnej rodzinie poety i jego córkach: Alice, Edith i Anne AllegraNelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 63. .
Wraz z poematem emitowany była grafika autorstwa Thomasa Buchanana Reada przedstawiająca córki Longfellowa.
Tekst poematu (oryg. - jęz. ang.) 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.