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

I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,
+++++++The cries of agony, the endless groan,
Which, through the ages that have gone before us,
+++++++In long reverberations reach our own.

On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,
+++++++Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman’s song,
And loud, amid the universal clamor,
+++++++O’er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong.

I hear the Florentine, who from his palace
+++++++Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,
And Aztec priests upon their teocallis
+++++++Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent’s skin;

The tumult of each sacked and burning village;
+++++++The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;
The soldiers’ revels in the midst of pillage;
+++++++The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;

The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,
+++++++The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;
And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,
+++++++The diapason of the cannonade.

Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,
+++++++With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Nature’s sweet and kindly voices,
+++++++And jarrest the celestial harmonies?

Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,
+++++++Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
+++++++There were no need of arsenals or forts:

The warrior’s name would be a name abhorred!
+++++++And every nation, that should lift again
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead
+++++++Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!

Down the dark future, through long generations,
+++++++The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,
+++++++I hear once more the voice of Christ say, “Peace!”

Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals
+++++++The blast of War’s great organ shakes the skies!
But beautiful as songs of the immortals,
+++++++The holy melodies of love arise.