Question

man's cruelty to man in the poen 'After Blenheim'

Answer 1

"After Blenheim" is an antiwar poem written in the form of a ballad. Robert Southey composed and published it in 1798. It revolves around the most renowned fight in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).

War speaks of the cruelest type of human conduct: "man's inhumanity to man" (a phrase coined by poet Robert Burns). The skull Peterkin finds, and additionally those that Kaspar routinely uncovers while furrowing, are quiet witness to the reality of this observation. The poem implies that the culprits of war can't or won't suppress wayward objectives that incite a brutal reaction. The kids—up 'til now uncorrupted by grown-up consideration—already see war for what it is.

Answer 2

Answer:

Southey’s poem After Blenheim is an anti-war poem. He is ironic here to present the fact that people in general glorify war and war-heroes without knowing what good it does to mankind or why a victory is called ‘great’ or ‘famous’.

Southey’s poem After Blenheim is an anti-war poem. He is ironic here to present the fact that people in general glorify war and war-heroes without knowing what good it does to mankind or why a victory is called ‘great’ or ‘famous’.In the poem we see that Old Kaspar repeatedly mentions the Battle of Blenheim as a great and famous victory but he does not know the reason. He has a romantic view of war even after receiving the sufferings himself during the war and after thousands of killings. This is all about the hollow romantic ideals regarding war that warmongers have created very carefully in people’s minds.Southey’s poem is a protest against the heroic ideals of war.

Southey’s poem After Blenheim is an anti-war poem. He is ironic here to present the fact that people in general glorify war and war-heroes without knowing what good it does to mankind or why a victory is called ‘great’ or ‘famous’.In the poem we see that Old Kaspar repeatedly mentions the Battle of Blenheim as a great and famous victory but he does not know the reason. He has a romantic view of war even after receiving the sufferings himself during the war and after thousands of killings. This is all about the hollow romantic ideals regarding war that warmongers have created very carefully in people’s minds.Southey’s poem is a protest against the heroic ideals of war.So, if you want a one-liner as a moral of the poem, here it is — “War can never be great.”