The Poet Longfellow's Prophetic Poem

Front:
OUR HONORED PRESIDENT, THE POET LONGFELLOW WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT who stands for a government of law Prophet of universal peace. under the constitution. (See other side.) Advocate of universal peace. LONGFELLOW'S PROPHETIC POEM THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling, Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing Startles the villages with strange alarms. 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? 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! 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 nor forts; 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 cnce more the vcice of Christ say, "Peace!" 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 beleagured 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. 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. The prophecy in the second stanza was fully realized a few years later in the Civil War. is equally prophetic, for our honored President is advocating universal peace. The seventh stanza

Back:
POSTAGE: One Cent for United States and Island Possessions, Cuba, Canada and Mexico Two Cents for Foreign PHOTO-TYРE Post Card By Geo. S. Graves, Springfield, Mass. FOR ADDRESS THE ARSENAL, United States Armory Grounds, Springfield, Mass., where can be stored 500,000 Springfield Rifles. Among the notable visitors here was the poet Longfellow. His attention was called by Mrs. Longfellow to the fact that these stacked arms in the Arsenal resembled the pipes of an organ. To this circumstance is due one of the finest poems ever written in the cause of universal peace. A 578 Copyright 1912 by George S. Graves.