The Arsenal at Springfield (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- First Published: 1844
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
The Poem
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Arsenal at Springfield” is a pacifistic, antiwar poem made up of twelve quatrains of loosely iambic pentameter lines, centering on the horrors of war and foreseeing an epoch in which peace replaces the need for arms. Longfellow uses the initial “organ-like” appearance of the “pipes” of the stashed arms as a basis to contrast the music of war to the music of peace throughout the rest of the poem.
The first and second stanzas briefly describe the munitions stored in the Massachusetts armory and point out how their...
[The entire page is 1499 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
