University of Wisconsin Eau Claire - Periscope Yearbook (Eau Claire, WI)

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Longfellow in His Study Key View Co. ' Comes a pause in the Jay's occupations That is known as the Children's Hour.

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DEDICATION AND THEME Many years ago, the late Mrs. Annie Longfellow Thorp, the Laughing Allcgra” of The Children’s Hour”, well-known poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, her father, became the bride of Joseph G. Thorp, Jr., then of Eau Claire, Harvard graduate, later a prominent Boston lawyer, and son of Joseph G. Thorp, Sr., Wealthy Eau Claire lumberman. At the time of Annie Longfellow’s marriage the Thorps lived in the stately old manison now the home of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Owen, Oakwood Place, Eau Claire. There, in the years that followed the wedding, Mrs. Annie Longfellow Thorp probably visited. In 1930, during a conversation in Cambridge, then Mrs. Thorp’s home, with Mrs. Lund, wife of Otto Lund, editor of the Eau Claire Telegram, Mrs. Thorp said she had visited in Eau Claire several times. To make a permanent record of this association of the daughter of Longfellow—and through her, of her father—with Eau Claire, the staff dedicates this volume to their memory and makes this memory its theme. In pursuance of this plan, the opening section of the book has i?ccn illustrated with five pictures of views of the Owen residence, the former Thorp home; and the seven subsequent division pages, with pictures illustrative of seven poems by Ixjngfellow. In each ease, the poem, or an excerpt from it, immediately precedes the picture. The stafF believes it a privilege to have this opportunity of paying even a belated tribute to one of the English speaking people’s most beloved poets; one whose genius is now being recognized more than at any other time since the zenith of his fame was reached, during the later decades of the nineteenth cyntury.

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THE CHILDREN'S HOUR Between (he 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 • • • « From my study I see the lamplight. Descending the broad hall stair, Crave Alice, and laughing Allegro, An luhtli with golden hair. A whistler, and then a silence Yet I know by their merry eyes Thev are lotting 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 oj my chair; If I try to escape, they surround me; They seem to be everywhere. Do you think 0 blue-eyed banditti, Because you hat e scaled the wall, .Such an old moustache as I am Is not a match for you all' I have you fast in my fortress. And will not let you dc iarl. But put you down in the dungeon. In the round tower of my heart And there I will keep you forever, Yes. forever and a day. Ttil the walls sh ill crumble to rum And molder in dust away