The Battle of Blenheim

“The Soldier’s Funeral” by Robert Southey (1799)

Written about the same time as “The Battle of Blenheim” and carrying a similar theme, this poem describes the funeral of a soldier. The man was torn from his home, likely never saw his children, and they knew no father; his mother does not know of his death. In spite of being made, like all humans, by God, he was fated to become “[a] mere machine of murder” (Line 41). Some people think this is acceptable, and they call themselves Christians. The speaker, however, feels he must denounce the injustice of it.

“The Victory” by Robert Southey (1799)

Southey wrote this poem at a time when England had been at war with France for more than five years. Church bells celebrate a victory for the navy, and it is a “day / Of glory” (Lines 6-7) for England. Some of the dead are being forgotten, however, including one sailor who had been forced by “lawful violence” (Line 18) to join the navy—this shows Southey’s anger at the brutal methods of navy recruitment—and had to leave his wife and children. The speaker asks God to comfort the man’s widow, for only God knows the depth of suffering that she is experiencing.