Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Childhood

“Ah! what would the world be to us If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before.”

“There was a little girl, And she had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead; When she was good she was very, very good, When she was bad she was horrid.”

“Perhaps there lives some dreamy boy, untaught In schools, some graduate of the field or street, Who shall become a master of the art, An admiral sailing the high seas of thought Fearless and first, and steering with his fleet For lands not yet laid down in any chart.”