August 13 The Harvard Classics, fifteen minutes a day
Too Close to See the Battle
England and France came to battle near Blenheim. Years later the people of Blenheim called it a “famous victory,” but could not tell whose victory it was.
- Battle of Blenheim, Aug. 13, 1704.
From the 1930 Reading Guide
After Blenheim and other poems
Robert Southey
The reading starts at the heading “422 After Blenheim” on page 732.
422 After Blenheim
IT was a summer evening,Old Kaspar’s work was done,And he before his cottage doorWas sitting in the sun;And by him sported on the greenHis little grandchild Wilhelmine.
She saw her brother PeterkinRoll something large and roundWhich he beside the rivuletIn playing there had found;He came to ask what he had foundThat was so large and smooth and round.
Old Kaspar took it from the boyWho 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.
‘I find them in the garden,For there’s many here about;And often when I go to ploughThe ploughshare turns them out.For many thousand men,’ said he,‘Were slain in that great victory.’
‘Now tell us what ’twas all about,’Young Peterkin he cries;And little Wilhelmine looks upWith wonder-waiting eyes;‘Now tell us all about the war,And what they fought each other for.’
‘It was the English,’ Kaspar cried,‘Who put the French to rout;But what they fought each other forI could not well make out.But everybody said,’ quoth he,‘That ’twas a famous victory.
‘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.
‘With fire and sword the country roundWas wasted far and wide,And many a childing mother thenAnd newborn baby died:But things like that, you know, must beAt every famous victory.
‘They say it was a shocking sightAfter the field was won;For many thousand bodies hereLay rotting in the sun:But things like that, you know, must beAfter a famous victory.
‘Great praise the Duke of Marlbro’ wonAnd 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 every body praised the DukeWho 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.’
423 The Scholar
MY days among the Dead are past;Around me I behold,Where’er these casual eyes are cast,The mighty minds of old:My never-failing friends are they,With whom I converse day by day.
With them I take delight in wealAnd seek relief in woe;And while I understand and feelHow much to them I owe,My cheeks have often been bedew’dWith tears of thoughtful gratitude.
My thoughts are with the Dead; with themI live in long-past years,Their virtues love, their faults condemn,Partake their hopes and fears,And from their lessons seek and findInstruction with an humble mind.
My hopes are with the Dead; anonMy place with them will be,And I with them shall travel onThrough all Futurity;Yet leaving here a name, I trust,That will not perish in the dust.
The poem that begins at “CHARLES LAMB” low on page 735 runs on past the assigned pages; the reading stops before it.
Volume 41, pages 732–735 · See the scanned page on archive.org
This is the reading for August 13 in Fifteen Minutes a Day: The Reading Guide (1930 edition), page 68. There the assignment reads “Vol. 41, pp. 732–735.” Read it in the guide.