The Arsenal At Springfield Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF CACA EGEG HEIE CJCJ EEEE CECE JKJL EEEE EEEEThis is the Arsenal From floor to ceiling | A |
Like a huge organ rise the burnished arms | B |
But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing | A |
Startles the villages with strange alarms | B |
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Ah what a sound will rise how wild and dreary | C |
When the death angel touches those swift keys | D |
What loud lament and dismal Miserere | C |
Will mingle with their awful symphonies | D |
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I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus | E |
The cries of agony the endless groan | F |
Which through the ages that have gone before us | E |
In long reverberations reach our own | F |
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On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer | C |
Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song | A |
And loud amid the universal clamor | C |
O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong | A |
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I hear the Florentine who from his palace | E |
Wheels out his battle bell with dreadful din | G |
And Aztec priests upon their teocallis | E |
Beat the wild war drums made of serpent's skin | G |
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The tumult of each sacked and burning village | H |
The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns | E |
The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage | I |
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns | E |
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The bursting shell the gateway wrenched asunder | C |
The rattling musketry the clashing blade | J |
And ever and anon in tones of thunder | C |
The diapason of the cannonade | J |
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Is it O man with such discordant noises | E |
With such accursed instruments as these | E |
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices | E |
And jarrest the celestial harmonies | E |
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Were half the power that fills the world with terror | C |
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts | E |
Given to redeem the human mind from error | C |
There were no need of arsenals or forts | E |
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The warrior's name would be a name abhorred | J |
And every nation that should lift again | K |
Its hand against a brother on its forehead | J |
Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain | L |
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Down the dark future through long generations | E |
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease | E |
And like a bell with solemn sweet vibrations | E |
I hear once more the voice of Christ say Peace | E |
- | |
Peace and no longer from its brazen portals | E |
The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies | E |
But beautiful as songs of the immortals | E |
The holy melodies of love arise | E |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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