How we cite our quotes: (verse)
Quote #1
He said to his friend, 'If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night (lines 6-7)
The threat of war is what makes this whole poem move. The citizens are waiting out in the countryside with their guns; the British are leaving Boston to come get them. There's no war yet, though. This poem is mostly about that scary, nervous moment just before a war starts: the edge of the storm. The colonies are about to start a big fight, and Longfellow wants us to feel what an electric moment that is.
Quote #2
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet (lines 27-28)
The whole poem is very focused on the way things sound. You can almost hear the marching boots in this line. And you get a feel for what it would be like to creep around Boston that night, spying on the British. We don't get a clear look at the beginnings of the war here, just some faraway sounds that let us know it's on its way.
Quote #3
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon (lines 99-100)
Even though this poem is celebrating the courage of the Americans in their fight against the British, it doesn't glorify war. The windows that seem alive in the town are horrified by the coming bloodshed, before the fighting even happens. In a way, all the violence in this poem gets pushed away and shifted around, so we don't have to look at it straight on.
Quote #4
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball (lines 109-110)
Another violent moment we don't have to look at straight on: we don't actually have to see this poor guy get plugged, but we know it's going to happen. Longfellow likes to play with time when it comes to showing the violence of the war. We know this random dead guy was killed long ago. In the poem, it hasn't happened yet, but the speaker knows it will. At the same time, we get the feeling that it's happening right now. In a cool way, Longfellow's poem lets us live in the past, present, and future at the same time.
Quote #5
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball (lines 113-114)
Here's the positive side of the war story. No scary, sad violence or young men getting killed, just a bunch of tough colonists who beat back a much stronger and better prepared army. This is the standard story of the Revolutionary War that we can all feel good about. The British are faceless and cowardly, the Americans a bunch of raggedy farmers who throw off the tormentors. There's some truth in that version, but Longfellow makes it hard to forget the reality, too. He's already reminded to us that war is always "bloody work" (line 100).