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The Battle of Blenheim

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Plot Summary

The Battle of Blenheim

Robert Southey

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1798

Plot Summary
“After Blenheim,” also known as “The Battle of Blenheim,” is a 1796 poem by Romantic poet Robert Southey (who would later become poet laureate of England). The poem concerns, most broadly speaking, the last echoes of an important early episode in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). After Charles II of Spain died without an heir in 1700, King Louis XIV's grandson acceded to the throne as Philip V. This started a war between Austria and France, with the former accusing the latter of an unfair power-grab. Subsequently, most of Europe was pulled into war – including France's traditional nemesis England, on the side of the Austrians. In 1704, the anti-French alliance decisively defeated the French in an engagement at the Bavarian town of Blenheim in Germany. In hindsight, this battle would prove to be a turning point in the war. England's Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, both of whom receive mention in Southey's poem, were two of the battle's greatest heroes.

Southey's poem doesn't directly engage with the historical details of the Battle of Blenheim, but focuses, rather, on its fading memory in the mind of a specific elderly denizen of town. At the beginning of the poem, this man, Kaspar, is relaxing of a summer's evening in his field, all his work done. Kaspar watches his young grandchildren Peterkin and Wilhelmine play in the fading sun. Peterkin discovers something “large and round”; after he starts playing with it, it attracts the attention of his sister, Wilhelmine. On Kaspar's close inspection, it turns out to be a skull – one that originally belonged to a soldier of the Battle of Blenheim. This sets in motion the rest of the poem.

Kaspar explains to his grandchildren that the thing they are paying with “'tis some poor fellow's skull” who “fell in the great victory” – so introducing the refrain that will ring throughout the poem. Kaspar describes how he finds such skulls in his garden all the time: each time he plows, “the plowshare turns them out.” Young Peterkin asks Kaspar to tell him and his sister what the war was all about, specifying that what he wants to know is what the opposing sides “fought each other for.” Kaspar responds that, while English put the French “to rout,” he cannot remember ever knowing what they were fighting over. He seems unconcerned with this omission, rhapsodizing instead, “'Twas a famous victory.”



Continuing, Kaspar explains that his father lived in Blenheim at the time of the battle. The soldiers burned his house down, forcing him and his family to flee. The war devastated the land “far and wide” and many innocent women and children were slain. “But things like that, you know, must be / After a famous victory,” Kaspar insists. Throughout the poem, he naively emphasizes the magnificence of war – the glamour of its retelling – regardless of its actual, historical human costs. He proudly name-drops the English Duke of Marlborough and native Bavarian Prince Eugene as two of the battle's great heroes. Wilhelmine interjects that they – and by extension, war generally – were very wicked. Kaspar disagrees with her on the basis that “it was a famous victory,” and the war heroes received much praise. Echoing his sister, Peterkin asks what good came of the war: again, and for the final time, Kaspar pleads ignorance, countering “But 'twas a famous victory.”

Southey's “After Blenheim” has widely been interpreted as a work of anti-war sentiment; such a reading is easily supported by the text. The central tension of the poem is the juxtaposition of Kaspar's proud retelling of a catastrophic incident, apparently because its fame outweighs its human cost in importance, versus his grandchildren's innocent inability to comprehend that war might ever be justifiable at all. It might be said, then, that the poem's heart has as much to do with the contrast between adult cynicism and childish innocence as it is about war per se. In any case, it is worth noting that Southey was never considered a pacifist strictly speaking, and several of his other poems, such as “The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo,” openly celebrate war.

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