After Blenheim by Robert Southey Annotation and Summary Notes.

1. AFTER BLENHEIM
Robert Southey

2. ANNOTATION

3. Annotate the following:
1. “why that I cannot tell,” said he,
“but ‘twas a famous victory.”
(OR)
2. He came to ask what he had found
That was so large & smooth & round.
(OR)
3. “Tis some poor fellow’s skull,” said he,
“who fell in the great victory.”
(OR)
4. “Now tell us all about the war,
And what they fought each other for.”
(0R)
5. For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun:

4.  Reference:
The above lines are taken from the poem ‘After Blenheim’
written by Robert Southey, an English poet belonged to the
Romantic school of thought.
 Context:
Peterkin & his sister, wilhelmine, find a large & round object
while playing by the river side. Peterkin is rolling the object. He
takes it to Kaspar & asks what it is. Kaspar’s grandchildren very
innocently ask their grandfather about the battle. He remembers
the miseries that the war brought with it. But in popular
understanding the war was understood as famous, & he admitted
that he never understood the reason behind the war.

5.  Meaning:
The children ask it out of their curiosity because they have never
seen such thing in their life. Then, the grandfather explains to them
that the round shaped object was the skull of a dead solider who had
sacrificed his life in the Spanish war & brought great victory to the
country. There were also many other soldiers who lost their lives on
both sides. Thousands of bodies “lay rotting in the sun”, says Kaspar,
while the peasant’s fields & homes were “wasted far & wide”.
However, Kaspar is at a loss to explain the cause of the battle. In
fact, the fields were littered with corpses. But such terrible
consequences are part of war, he says. They do not negate the glory
of the war. Old Kaspar unquestioningly accepts the loss of innocent
women & children in the Battle of Blenheim as one of the prices of
the glorious victory. The battle resulted in a massive bloodbath. The
war was waged to satiate the ego of the rulers, but the old man
cannot give a reasonable answer to his grandchildren. All he could
say was that this war led to a ‘famous victory.’

6. SUMMARY

7. Robert Southey (1774-1843) was one of the leading poets of
the Romantic Age. He was a contemporary of William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and was one of the
Lake Poets. He was also a Laureate Poet for 30 years from 1813
to hid death in 1843. ‘After Blenheim’ was published in 1798.
The poem ‘After Blenheim’ was written by Robert Southey’s.
it captures the destructive aftermath of the Battle of Blenheim.
It plots on the most famous battle in the war of the Spanish
Succession (1701 -1714). Old Kaspar, a peasant, discusses the
battle with his grandchildren many years after the “famous
Victory.”

8. Kaspar sits in front of his cottage watching his grandchildren. They
are Wilhelmine and Peterkin. Peterkin is rolling an object he found near a
stream. He takes it to Kaspar and asks what it is. The old man, who has
found many such objects while plowing the fields, replies that it is the
skull of a solider who died in the Battle of Blenheim. When Kaspar was
explaining about skull of solider, the children curiosity aroused. The
children ask him about the battle and why it was fought. Kaspar says
that there were many other soldiers who lost their lives on both sides.
Thousands of bodies “lay rotting in the sun,” says Kaspar. In fact, the
fields were littered with corpses. Such terrible consequences are part of
war, he says.
The cause of the battle was not exactly known. But what they knew
was that it was a great victory. It was the ambition of Dukes and Princes
that led to massive bloodshed, where many innocent people lost their
lives. Thus, the poem is a scathing critique of the grand ambition of the
rulers that resulted in a war, causing immense bloodshed.