Question

"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be 
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro'won,
And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why,'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.

"Nay...nay...my little girl,"quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell,"said he,
"But 'twas a famous 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.

Wilhelmine then comments that the battle was “a wicked thing,” but Kaspar tells her she is wrong. “It was a famous victory,” he says. Peterkin asks what good came of the fighting. Kaspar says he does not know, but adds, ” ’twas a famous victory.” The narrator does not know why the battle was fought, why thousands died, why his father’s cottage was burned or what good came of it but ironically it was a famous victory.