Beschreibung:

LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882). Autograph transcript signed ("Henry W. Longfellow"), a fair copy of the complete poem "The Children's Hour," comprising 10 four-line stanzas. N.p., 10 Mar 1864. 4 pp, 8¾ x by 6¾ in., neatly inlaid to larger sheets 10¼ x 8½ in., bound with an two engraved portraits, a view of Longfellow's Cambridge home and the text of the poem from a published edition. Crimson crushed levant morocco gilt, upper cover gilt-lettered "Ms. of The Children's Hour by Henry W. Longfellow," floral cornerpieces, gilt spine, gilt edges, white moiré silk endpages (slight rubbing to joints). A FINE FAIR COPY OF LONGFELLOW'S MUST ENDURINGLY POPULAR LYRIC, "THE CHILDREN'S HOUR" Longfellow married twice and with his second wife, Fanny Appleton, raised six children including three young daughters, Alice, Allegra and Edith, all of whom are named in the third stanza and whose actions were the inspiration for the poem. It undoubtedly constitutes one of Longfellow's finest and most widely admired lyrics, and was composed before its first publication in The Atlantic Monthly (September 1861); it was later collected in Tales of a Wayside Inn (Boston, 1863). "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. I have you fast in my fortress, And will not let you depart, But put you down into the dungeon In the round tower of my heart. And there I will keep you forever, Yes, forever and a day, Till the walls shall crumble to ruin , And moulder in dust away." Ony one other fair copy of Longfellow's "The Children's Hour" is noted in American Book Prices Current since 1975. Published in The Poetical Works (Boston 1890), III: 64-65.