"Inchcape Rock" by Robert Southey is based on a traditional Scottish folktale concerning a dangerous rock outcropping in northern Scotland. Southey follows the original in making a simple moral point.
The moral perspective of the poem is Christian. Robert Southey himself was a member of the Church of England and the poem is narrated in Christian terms, with the morally good character being an Abbot and mentions of Christ and the Devil.
In the poem,...
"Inchcape Rock" by Robert Southey is based on a traditional Scottish folktale concerning a dangerous rock outcropping in northern Scotland. Southey follows the original in making a simple moral point.
The moral perspective of the poem is Christian. Robert Southey himself was a member of the Church of England and the poem is narrated in Christian terms, with the morally good character being an Abbot and mentions of Christ and the Devil.
In the poem, the Abbot of Aberbrothok is blessed for having placed to bell on Inchcape Rock attached to a float so that mariners will be warned away from the rock, which was a hazard to navigation. Sir Ralph sinks the bell so that he can profit from ships wrecked on the rock. One night, Sir Ralph's own ship ends up wrecked on Inchcape Rock because the bell is no longer in place to warn him away. The moral is straightforward, that one's bad deeds will come back to haunt one, a concept that in Buddhism and Hinduism is called karma. In the Bible, a similar idea is expressed in Galatians 6:7: "whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
No comments:
Post a Comment