Summary
The Children’s Hour is the name the speaker gives to an hour in the evening sometime between the dark and the dawn. He is working by lamplight in his study and hears the footsteps and the sweet, hushed voices of his three daughters. A door opens and he can see Alice, Allegra, and Edith slipping down the steps as they plot and plan to ambush him.
Suddenly they rush and surround him as if conducting a raid on a castle. They climb on his chair, seemingly everywhere at once. They kiss him joyfully and throw their arms around him, reminding him of the Bishop of Bingen, a character from a folk-tale who had been surrounded and devoured by mice in his tower.
He laughingly addresses them, asking if they think that this “old mustache” is no match for them just because they’ve managed to scale the walls. He will hold them prisoner here, placing them in the “dungeon” of his heart. There they will live forever until the walls crumble into dust.
Analysis
“The Children’s Hour” is one of Longfellow’s most beloved poems, although it has received its fair share of criticism due to its sentimental nature. It concerns a father sitting and working in his study by lamplight at the close of the day who hears his three daughters whispering and plotting to run in and play with him. They do, jumping on him and kissing him feverishly. He plays along and tells them that he will hold them prisoner in the castle dungeon of his heart forever. It is sweet, intimate, and personal; the daughters’ names in the poems are those of Longfellow’s own children.
The playfulness of the poem is undergirded by a deep emotionalism, no doubt informed by Longfellow’s own tragic life in which two wives and at least one child died at young ages. It was not uncommon to die of things such as miscarriages (his first wife) and ill health in the 19th century.
Longfellow uses fairy tales and medieval Romances to structure the action of the poem. The speaker refers to his daughters as “banditti,” a term for outlaws that originated in Italy and that recalls the roaming gangs of the mountainous regions of Italy and Greece. The speaker's word choice introduces a lighthearted irony and enhances the sense that this is a welcome intrusion. The speaker welcomes the daughters as they "storm" the castle wall, trying to mount the turret of his chair. He claims victory, saying he will hold them fast in the dungeon of his heart until the end of time. The moody lighting and evocation of stairs and walls adds to the medieval atmosphere, as does the allusion to the Bishop of Bingen. Bingen is a small German town and the Mouse Tower is a small edifice on an island outside the town. A folktale says Hatto II, archbishop of Mainz, was devoured by mice in the tower, a terrible but fitting punishment for his oppressive rule.
Despite the softness and charm of the poem, some critics like Randall Huff see a deeper commentary on the “rigidly structured life led by a mid-19th century American adult male in his dual role as businessman and father.” Huff says that the father seems to have provided a good life for his family (hence the allusion to a large home) but this was accomplished by long, arduous hours of work. He spends most of his time in the study “and has but a single hour reserved for interaction with his daughters.” Huff concludes that though the poem does not have an explicit moral, “it implies that a parent can receive far more in exchange for all the love, care, and expense involved in raising children if their love and antics can divert him (or her) from the cares of the world.”
In terms of that parenting, critic Matthew Gartner offers more insights. He writes in his article on Longfellow and Craigie House that the poem “hints at the actual fragility of the father’s hold on his daughters and his ultimate powerless to protect and safeguard them.” This can be observed in the weary, somewhat anxious tone of the poem, mostly present in its shadows.
