Read the following lines and answer the question that follows by choosing the correct option :
'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 round
Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died;
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.
The poem conveys the following message: (Choose the correct option)
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Victory at a price
The lines show what a "famous victory" cost ordinary people: homes burnt, families driven out, the country "wasted far and wide", mothers and new-born babies dead. The closing words, "things like that, you know, must be / At every famous victory", carry the poem's irony: every celebrated victory is bought with such suffering.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Necessity of war — Incorrect. Contradicted: the poem shows the suffering war causes; it does not argue that war is needed.
Option 3: Victory brings fame — Incorrect. Misread: the word "famous" is used with irony: the fame of the victory hides the deaths behind it, and the poem points to those deaths.
Option 4: Victory costs money — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: the price spoken of is human lives and homes, not money.