After Blenheim

"After Blenheim" is an anti-war poem written by English Romantic poet laureate Robert Southey in 1796. The poem is set at the site of the Battle of Blenheim at the Danube in Southern Germany, where in 1704 the Second Grand Alliance between Great Britain, Austria and others prevented French invaders from attacking Vienna. Over 10,000 died. Decades later, two small children ask questions about a skull one of them has found. Their grandfather, an old man, tells them of burned homes, civilian casualties, and rotting corpses, while repeatedly calling it "a famous victory".

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