Analysis of After Blenheim by Robert Southey
The Battle of Blenheim was a war that took place between the English troops and the Franco-Bavarian troops on 13 August 1704. It was part of the war of the Spanish Succession and is regarded as the greatest victory of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill. It was located in the German city of Blindheim, and this war guaranteed the safety of Vienna and prevented the Grand Alliance from collapsing.
The poem is an anti-war poem, and the main character sees only the glory of war, without any understanding of the motives behind it, or the real consequences of it. It is written in a conversational manner, as a story told by a grandfather to his grandchildren. This 66-line poem is split into 11 sestets, that is, six lines per stanza,
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Lines 1-6
It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar’s work was done
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun,
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.
The main character of the poem, Kaspar, was an elderly man who was relaxing in his garden after finishing his work for the day. It was a beautiful summer’s eve, and his young granddaughter was playing in the grass nearby. He was unwinding in the sun, sitting outside his cottage.
In this stanza, we are introduced to two characters, Kaspar and Wilhelmine. As the Battle of Blenheim was in Germany, we can see that the character names are also German.
Lines 7-12
She saw her brother Peterkin
Roll something large and round,
Which he beside the rivulet
In playing there had found;
He came to ask what he had found
That was so large, and smooth, and round.
Wilhelmine noticed that her brother was rolling something that he found in the small stream near the cottage. He had been playing there and had discovered something large and round. He was on his way to ask his grandfather what he had found, as he did not recognise it.
Here, we are introduced to Peterkin, Kaspar’s grandson and Wilhelmine’s brother. He was a curious child, and this is represented in his discovery of the mysterious object, and his desire to know what it is.
The poet brings about a faint sense of anticipation in this stanza, as the object was described twice as being large, and round. Yet, the explanation for what it is will only come later. The poet builds a desire in the reader that reflects Peterkin’s desire to know what he had found. Additionally, this stanza is from the perspective of Wilhelmine, and she too has no idea what the item could be.
Lines 13-18
Old Kaspar took it from the boy,
Who stood expectant by;
And then the old man shook his head,
And, with a natural sigh,
“Tis some poor fellow’s skull”, said he,
“Who fell in the great victory.”
Kaspar took the object from the boy, who waited expectantly nearby. Kaspar says that the object is the skull of a person who lost their life in battle. He shakes his head and sighs to show that he does pity the man who had to die for the English to reign victorious, but he still believes that the battle was great.
The last two lines of this stanza contrast with each other, as he says “poor fellow” pityingly but immediately goes on to call the victory “great”. The loss of life is of less value to Kaspar than the fact that the English won the war.
Lines 19-24
“I find them in the garden,
For there’s many here about;
And often when I go to plough,
The ploughshare turns them out!
For many thousand men,” said he,
“Were slain in great victory.”
The aftermath of the war follows old Kaspar every day and seeps into the normal parts of his life. He finds these skulls regularly in his garden and his fields. He repeats that thousands of men lost their lives, but still believes that the victory was great.
He has been desensitized to the pain of war and the pain of death, as he finds skulls in the garden as people find shells on a beach. He does not have any strong emotion toward the war there other than the assertion that it was an exceptional victory. Thousands of men were slain ruthlessly, but the message that Kaspar emphasizes is the fact that the victory was so important.
It is prudent to note that Kaspar was not even on the winning side of the Battle of Blenheim. He is German, and his country was beaten by the English. The loss that follows war is irrelevant to him, and he glorifies the victories, though his country was the one that was conquered. The thousands of men that fell were men of his country, and he does not really care that so many Bavarians died because the victory of the English was what made him feel that something good had happened. He is a man who glorifies war and does not care about the actual consequences of it.
Lines 25-30
“Now tell us what ‘twas all about,”
Young Peterkin, he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes;
“Now tell us all about the war,
And what they fought each other for.”
His grandchildren respond to the emotion brought forth by Kaspar, and they excitedly ask to be told the whole story of the Battle. Wilhelmine and Peterkin look admiringly at their grandfather, wanting to know the true reason behind this war.
This stanza represents the excitement that little children usually have for the stories told to them by loving grandparents. They do not know what the contents of the story will be, but they are excited to hear a new story from someone they love. The visual that comes to mind is two children excitedly bouncing around their grandfather relaxing in a chair, begging for a story to entertain them.
Here, alliteration is used in “wonder-waiting”.
Lines 31-36
“It was the English,” Kaspar cried,
“Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for,
I could not well make out;
But everybody said,” quoth he,
“That ‘twas a famous victory.
In this war, the English army was fighting against the Franco-Bavarian army. So, the English defeated the French and made them retreat (“put to rout”). However, Kaspar is also aware that he has no idea what the reasoning behind the war is. Yet, he believed it was good, and needed, because everyone around him said it was a great and famous victory.
He has no understanding of the war itself and glorifies it without reason. His view of the war is also dependent on other people’s views of the war. Others say it was famous, so it must be great. He follows the crowd, so to speak, and hence gives no real value to the thousands of deaths that war results in.
He is a representation of people who care more about the victory and fame of war, rather than the men who lay down their lives. Those who wage war are not the ones who fight it. They sit comfortably in their offices whilst all the conscripted soldiers do their bidding without question. There is an element of honour in this, but it is not at all necessary. He glorifies war because he thinks about the result, not the action. The ends justify the means, it would seem.
Lines 37-42
“My father lived at Blenheim then,
Yon little stream hard by;
They burnt his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forced to fly;
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.
Kaspar’s father was in the thick of it, and he lived close to the stream where the soldier’s skull was found. His house was burnt to the ground, and he was forced to leave. Kaspar relocated with his parents because of the war, and for a while, they didn’t even have a place to stay.
It is clear that Kaspar built a cottage near his childhood home, but again, he is blind to the fact that a war that forces people out of their homes is not something that could be good. He himself faced a consequence of war, with his house being burnt down as a child, and yet he still refers to the war as a great victory, and not a failure of humanity.
Lines 43-48
“With fire and sword the country round
Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died;
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.
The country was ravaged by war, houses were burnt, and people were killed by swords. The war is so merciless that even pregnant mothers and new-born babies are not spared from its jaws. The war takes away existing life and removes life that is about to begin as well. Nobody escapes the pain and defeat of the war.
Yet, Kaspar has accepted it. He tells his grandchildren that these consequences are normalised. They are expected results of such a clash, and the victory would not come without this kind of loss. He implies that all these deaths are worth the victory. Death no longer holds any meaning to him, only triumph is valuable.
Lines 49-54
“They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
After the war, thousands of bodies lay strewn about the field, with the sun shining on them. This sight was terrible, as the dead bodies were just left to rot. Kaspar did not see it himself and says this from what he has heard from others.
Again, he repeats that this is an expected result of such a triumph. The thousands of dead bodies are not seen as thousands of lives lost, thousands of families broken, or thousands of futures snuffed out. They are just seen as tools for the war, tools that represent victory. The dead are the proof that the victory was great, and this is expected and almost a requirement, Kaspar says.
Lines 55-60
“Great praise the Duke of Marlbro’ won,
And our good prince Eugene.”
“Why, ‘twas a very wicked thing!”
Said little Wilhelmine.
“Nay… nay… my little girl,” quoth he,
“It was a famous victory.
The Duke of Marlborough was the English Captain-General, and prince Eugene was the commander of the armies that fought in the Battle of Blenheim. They were both praised equally for their role in bringing victory back to England, and Kaspar references this.
Still, his granddaughter is not blinded by the war and recognises that it is a terrible thing. She is the representation of those people who find war to be useless, and totally unnecessary. It is a wicked thing to make men kill other men out of selfish motives – and war is almost always because of a selfish motive.
She is gently corrected by her grandfather, who still insists on the greatness of the victory, though he has no clue about the motive behind the war. He is ignorant about why the war took place and keeps parroting that it was great, it was good, it was famous, and so on.
Lines 61-66
“And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win.”
“But what good came of it at last?”
Quoth little Peterkin.
“Why that I cannot tell,” said he,
“But ‘twas a famous victory.”
The poem ends with the grandfather repeating that the Duke was praised for winning the fight. His grandson, Peterkin, wonders whether there was any kind of positive impact at the end of it all. Again, the grandfather does not know and just repeats that it was a famous victory.
The two grandchildren are the voices of morality, asking the world why war needs to take place at all. This wicked system kills and burns, and does not even end in goodness. Kaspar does not care about any of that, and glorifies war for the sake of war, for the sake of victory. He, even after being subject to loss, does not empathise with the people on the wrong side of victory and cares only for the accomplished feeling of success.
The poet utilises repetition of the lines “But things like that, you know, must be / After a famous victory.” to emphasize that so many people see death as a requisite of war when war itself is not a necessary thing. It shows how people accept the sacrifice that others are forced to make without really thinking about the fact that they are real lives and real people.
ABOUT THE POET : ROBERT SOUTHEY
Robert Southey, born in 1774 in Bristol, was one of the most versatile writers of the Romantic period. His prose is more well-known than his poetry, though he was made a Poet Laureate in 1813.
His association with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth also contributes to his popularity in the world of literature. He was a very controversial person, and he and Lord Byron hated each other to the point of enmity.
His style of poetry is characterized by clarity and ease. His way of writing is always straightforward, and easy to understand. Some of his famous work includes “Joan of Arc” and “Roderick, the Last of the Goths.”
He died in 1843, in London.