Question

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,
Who stood expectant by;
And then the old man shook his head,
And,with a natural sigh,
"Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,
"Who fell in the great victory.
"I find them in the garden,
For there's many here about;
And often when I go to plough,
The ploughshare turns them out!
For many thousand men,"said he,
"Were slain in that great victory."

Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.

Explain with reference to context.

Answer 1

These lines have been taken from the poem ‘After Blenheim’ which is an antiwar poem in the form of a ballad. Robert Southey wrote and published it in 1798. It centers on the most famous battle in the War of the Spanish Succession. The old man, who has found many such objects while ploughing the fields, replies that it is the skull of a soldier who died in the Battle of Blenheim. He tells them that lie found many such skulls as a large number of soldiers had died in the war which was a great victory.