After Blenheim is an anti war poem discuss how the poem highlights the destruction caused by a war and a common mans ignorance of its purpose?
Answers
Through a conversation between an old farmer, Kaspar and his grandchildren, Wilhelmine and Peterkin the poet gradually reveals the scene of a former battlefield. One of the kids has found something ‘large and round’ which his grandfather explains is a skull, one of many to be found nearby. Similar instances run through the poem to support the main ideas – tragic end of war & the vulnerability of human life. The poem After Blenheim makes us ponder on the purpose and result of a war and even questions its validity.
The war caused huge devastation and thousands of casualties. But Old Kaspar seems to have an unconcerned attitude towards this as he claims that ‘it was a famous victory’ and ‘things like that must be’. His gruesome descriptions followed by his casual sayings create an effect of irony. It is ironic that it was a great war, but no one knows why.
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'After Blenheim,' a poem by Robert Southey, is an anti-war poem. Through a dialogue about a prior conflict – the Battle of Blenheim — the poet has illustrated the devastation that war may wreak. When people plow the field or children play there, skulls are unearthed here and there, evoking the stark reality of the war's tens of thousands of deaths.
"So with his wife and child, he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head."
In the poem, Old Kasper describes how many people were forced to evacuate because their homes were set on fire. When Kasper's father escaped with him and his mother, he suffered the same sorrow. They were walking the streets since they didn't have anywhere to stay.
"And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died;"
The fight with fire and swords ravaged a large portion of the land. During that awful conflict, many would-be moms and children died. When the conflict ended, the sight of hundreds of dead bodies decomposing in the sun was horrific. That is the most inhumane thing imaginable.
Despite the war's devastation, the Duke of Marlboro and Prince Eugene were praised by the ordinary people for obtaining "a glorious triumph." Even after all these years, people like Kasper, a victim of the war, continue to praise it. When pressed for an explanation, he does not know what good war can accomplish. That is paradoxical, as it reflects the harsh fact that people praise war and so-called combat heroes while being unaware of the purpose for which they exist. And, to be honest, there isn't much to say.