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After Blenheim notes
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Summarising and explaining the poem After Blenheim
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After blenheimRobert Southey
About the poet :
Robert Southey (1774-1843) is a poet, historian, essayist and a biographer, who is
better known to the world for his poems. Contemporary to the poets like William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he shares many concerns along with
them and is one of the chief architects of Romantic poetry; though not so popular
as the other two poets. "After Blenheim" is an antiwar poem written in 1798 in the
form of a ballad. It centers on the most famous battle in the War of the Spanish
Succession (1701-1714), the Battle of Blenheim.
Poem at a glance :
~Old Kaspar is sitting in front of his cottage where his granddaughter Wilhelmine
is playing.
~Perterkin, Kaspar's another grand child, comes back playing with a skull which
he has found near the river.
~Kaspar tells him that it is of some dead soldier who died in the battle
of Blenheim.
~Kaspar further adds that many people died in the battle of Blenheim.
~Kaspar's father's cottage was burnt and he had to flee with his wife and children.
~Kaspar states that the Battle of Blenheim was a great victory where Duke of
Marlborough and Prince Eugene were great war heroes.
~Wilhelmine could not understand how the battle was a great victory and terms it
as a wicked thing.
~Peterkin questions how the battle was of any good?
~Kaspar could not answer all these questions and merely says it was a
great victory.
Summary :
In Blenheim, an old farmer named Kaspar is sitting in front of his cottage
watching his grandchildren, Wilhelmine and Peterkin, playing. Peterkin is coming
back home rolling an object that he has found near a rivulet. He takes it to his
grandfather and asks what it is. The old man replies that it is the skull of a soldier
who probably has died in the Battle of Blenheim. The curiosity of the children is
aroused and they ask their grandfather about the battle. The grandfather starts by
saying that the English routed the French in what people call a famous victory, but
Old Kaspar is not able to explain the cause of the battle to the children, though -
not only the soldiers who fought in the war he states that thousands died in it but
also other people, including children and pregnant women. These are the cost one
pays for the war. Listening to these, Wilhelmine comments that it is "a wicked
thing," and Peterkin reacts by saying "But what good came of it at last".
, Old Kaspar could not say anything to these but merely reiterates the fact that
it was a famous victory.
Justification of the title :
Robert Southey's poem "After Blenheim" is an anti-war poem where the poet
makes two child protagonists Wilhelmine and Peterkin ask questions to Old Kaspar,
their grandfather, about the victory in the war of Blenheim. Blenheim is the
English name for the German village of Blindheim, situated on the left bank of the
Danube River in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany. Old Kaspar merely
could answer that it was a 'famous victory' but could not answer if the victory was
a desirable one, if the cost of the victory was something that is ever accounted for?
So, the title "After Blenheim" seems to be apt as it is a discussion after the war
about the consequences and the costs of the war.
Paraphasing and explanations :
STANZA 1
On a summer evening Old Kaspar, after doing his work, was sitting in the sun
before his cottage where on the lawns of the cottage his little grandchild
Wilhelmine was playing.
STANZA 2
Kaspar's little grandchild Wilhelmine saw her brother Peterkin rolling something
large and round towards the house. Peterkin had found the thing beside the small
river and had been playing with it. The thing roused his curiosity and he had come
to his grandfather Kaspar to ask him what is the large object that he has found
which is smooth and round.
STANZA 3
Old Kaspar took that round object from his grandchild Peterkin who stood eagerly
looking at his grandfather expecting a reply from him. The old man looked at it
intently and shook his head probably in getting reminded of those days of war and
took a 'sigh' to say that the round object is nothing but a skull of some poor fellow
who was killed in the battle of Blenheim. But while referring to the battle Old
Kaspar said that this poor fellow might have been the cost of the great victory.
STANZA 4
Old Kaspar answers that one can find many in the gardens and moreover adds that
when he ploughs the land, skulls often come out with the blade of his plough as
thousands of men were killed in the Battle of Blenheim.
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