49 lines
No EOL
1.4 KiB
Text
49 lines
No EOL
1.4 KiB
Text
Between the dark and the daylight,
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When the night is beginning to lower,
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Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
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That is known as the Children's Hour.
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I hear in the chamber above me
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The patter of little feet,
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The sound of a door that is opened,
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And voices soft and sweet.
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From my study I see in the lamplight,
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Descending the broad hall stair,
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Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
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And Edith with golden hair.
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A whisper, and then a silence:
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Yet I know by their merry eyes
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They are plotting and planning together
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To take me by surprise.
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A sudden rush from the stairway,
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A sudden raid from the hall!
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By three doors left unguarded
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They enter my castle wall!
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They climb up into my turret
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O'er the arms and back of my chair;
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If I try to escape, they surround me;
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They seem to be everywhere.
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They almost devour me with kisses,
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Their arms about me entwine,
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Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
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In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!
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Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
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Because you have scaled the wall,
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Such an old mustache as I am
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Is not a match for you all!
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I have you fast in my fortress,
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And will not let you depart,
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But put you down into the dungeon
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In the round-tower of my heart.
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And there will I keep you forever,
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Yes, forever and a day,
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Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
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And moulder in dust away! |