Question

What is the theme of the poem After Blenheim by the poet Robert Southey?

Answer 1

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’.

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.”