The Arsenal at Springfield
Looking at an arsenal's stored weapons, the speaker compares them to organ pipes and imagines the sounds of warfare across ages and peoples. The speaker argues that wealth and power devoted to war could instead correct human error, then envisions the noise of battle yielding to Christ's call for peace and melodies of love.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Anti-War Literature, Poetry · 534 words
First lines
This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling, / Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; / But front their silent pipes no anthem pealing / Startles the villages with strange alarms.
Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, / When the death-angel touches those swift keys / What loud lament and dismal Miserere / Will mingle with their awful symphonies
Genres
- Anti-War Literature — The speaker condemns pillage, famine and bombardment, calls for war's resources to serve human understanding, and imagines nations abandoning violence.
- Poetry — Twelve rhymed quatrains sustain a comparison between stored weapons and organ pipes, moving from imagined battle sounds to a closing vision of peace.
Tags
war · peace · arsenals · weapons · civilian suffering · military spending
What this Textopian page supports
The Arsenal at Springfield is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Anti-War Literature, Poetry
- Length: 534 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Arsenal at Springfield by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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