[Vision2020] Glorious victory

[Ralph Nielsen]

I remember having studied this poem many years ago in the little red  
schoolhouse (grades 1-8 in the same room) up Highway 95 in Edgewater  
BC. I learned at an early age just how glorious some victories really  
are.

Ralph

The Battle of Blenheim
Robert Southey
The Annual Anthology, II (1800), 34-37

                     I.

It was a summer evening,
     Old Kaspar's work was done;
And he before his cottage door
     Was sitting in the sun,
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

                     II.

She saw her brother Peterkin
     Roll something large and round,
That he beside the rivulet
     In playing there had found;
He came to ask what he had found,
That was so large, and smooth, and round.

                    III.

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.

                     IV.

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 the great victory.

                     V.

Now tell us what 'twas all about,
     Young Peterkin he cries,
And little Wilhelmine looks up
     With wonder-waiting eyes;
Now tell us all about the war,
And what they kill'd each other for.

                     VI.

It was the English, Kaspar cried,
     That put the French to rout;
But what they kill'd each other for,
     I could not well make out.
But every body said, quoth he,
That 'twas a famous victory.

                    VII.

My father lived at Blenheim then,
     Yon little stream hard by,
They burnt his dwelling to the ground
     And he was forced to fly;
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.

                    VIII.

With fire and sword the country round
     Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother then,
     And new-born infant died.
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.

                     IX.

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.

                     X.

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.

                     XI.

And every body praised the Duke
     Who such a 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.