The Inchcape rock is based on the idiom you will reap what you sow, tit for tat,

what goes around comes around and the like. If you sow happiness, you will get happiness and if you sow sadness, you will get sadness indeed. This is in fact the rule of nature. Inchcape rock near the coast of Scotland is actually the central theme of this essay. This particular rock in Scotland is a huge and perilous rock which can be noticed in hot and sunny days but a ship could meet with an accident with the rock during storms because it is not visible at that time. Now this cat needed to be belled. The Abbot of Aberbrothok hanged a bell on the rock as a result of which the bell ranged continuously till the storm was present and thus the sailors avoided the way where the bell ranged. Sir Ralph the rover, a pirate decided to free the rock from the bell because he used to loot the ships which were destructed as a result of the damages caused by hitting the Inchcape rock. As the story moves ahead, Sir Ralph grows extremely rich and settles in Scotland. But nature sooner or later pays you for all your wrong deeds. This was also true in the case of Sir Ralph. While he was aboard on his ship, one night the moon was absent. Sir Ralph continuously motivated his sailors by saying that moon light will appear soon and they should not panic. The sailors followed the orders and the ship continued moving. With an unexpected turn of events, the ship hit the Inchcape Rock and slowly started drowning in the water. While drowning the sailors and all the people aboard wished that the bell was there on the rock because if the bell would have existed, such a mishap would not have taken place. When Sir Ralph drowns he feels miserable to have removed the bell from the rock because he was himself paying the price of the wrong deed he once committed. What would he now do of the money he looted because he will not be alive to use the money he accumulated by wrong means. Though the bell was not there but Sir Ralph could hear the noise of the bell in his head banging continuously. He felt that the ringing bell was telling him that look you are paying for your own wrong deeds. This is an essay which is very beneficial for the kids. The kids learn at this tender age only that doing wrong in life will never help them in leading a happy life. They might witness momentary happiness but at the end of the day they will not be satisfied because no one can find happiness by snatching away the happiness of others.

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NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biographical and Historical Note. Robert Southey (1774-1843) was an English poet. From 1813 until his death he was Poet Laureate of England. Bell Rock, or Inchcape, is a reef of red sandstone near the Firth of

Tay, on the east coast of Scotland. At the time of the spring tides part of the reef is uncovered to the height of four feet. Because so many vessels were wrecked upon these rocks the Abbot of Aberbrothok is said to have placed a bell there, "fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea." Discussion. 1. What picture do you see when you read the first stanza? The second stanza? 2. This story tells about a man who failed. You have read about Peter's heroism and the lives he saved, about the service a schoolboy rendered to a poor old woman, about a blacksmith who joyously made the tools by which men raised fruit and grain for food, and about a boy who was faithful to orders, even though it cost his life. Here you see how men sometimes try to make of no effect all the good deeds that others perform. 3. The Abbot of Aberbrothok was a man who lived up to the ideal of service; how did he do this, and why did men bless him? 4. Ralph the Rover was a pirate; why did he destroy the bell? 5. All the others in the stories you have read, boys and men, thought less of themselves than of others; of what did Ralph think? 6. Is a merchant who raises the price of food as high as he can, who makes huge profits while others suffer or starve, any better than Ralph the Rover? 7. What test of loyalty to our country, would prove such a man to be a "bad citizen"? 8. Ralph was a free man--what did "liberty" mean to him? 9. What happened to Ralph the Rover? 10. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: keel; abbot; perilous; joyance; breakers; methinks. 11. Pronounce: buoy; mariners; excess; scoured. === http://www.zoomfa.com/Questions/Inchcape ==== Explain any two metaphors or personifications in the poem "The Inchcape rock" by Robert Southey.

The 'Inchcape Rock' is a perilous reef off the east coast of Angus Scotland near the mouth of the river Tay. The rock would just protrude for a few inches above the surface of the sea in low tide and be completely covered by the sea in high tide or when the sea was rough. Many ships had been wrecked by this 'inchcape rock' when they mistakenly struck it when it was covered by the sea. In the fourteenth century an abbot from Arbroath (Aberbrothok) in nearby Angus tied a bell to the inchcape rock to warn the passing ships of the danger due to the notorious rock. When the sailors heard the bell ringing they knew that their ship was near the inchcape rock which had been covered by the sea, and they would steer their ship to safety thanking and praising the abbot: When the Rock was hid by the surges swell, The Mariners heard the warning Bell; And then they knew the perilous Rock, And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok Robert Southey's literary ballad "The Inchcape Rock" written between 17968, and published in 1802 is based on this legendary 'Inchcape Rock.'

Southey's poem tell us of a pirate who was jealous of the abbot's fame and reputation and out of spite he cut off the bell gloating maliciously and sadistically, Quoth Sir Ralph, The next who comes to the Rock, Wont bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok. But the poem ends with Sir Ralph being punished for his evil deed. Once when he was returning home with the loot he had plundered his ship sails into a fog and he becomes completely disoriented: So thick a haze oerspreads the sky, They cannot see the sun on high; The wind hath blown a gale all day, At evening it hath died away. From the sound of the waves breaking they realize that they are near the shore. Even as one of the sailors wishes that they could hear the inchcape bell and be warned of the danger ahead the ship strikes the inchcape rock. The pirate ship sinks with Sir Ralph tearing his hair and cursing himself. The ballad concludes with the sound of the funeral bell ringing for Sir Ralph and Satan waiting to receive him in hell: But even is his dying fear, One dreadful sound could the Rover hear; A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell, The Devil below was ringing his knell. Example of personification: 1. The Ship was still as she could be; Her sails from heaven received no motion, Her keel was steady in the ocean. The inanimate 'ship' is referred to as a lady. 2. Examples of metaphors: (i) "Sir Ralph the Rover walkd his deck." Sir Ralph strutted about proudly up and down the deck of his ship. (ii) "A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell, The Devil below was ringing his knell." Southey imagines that the pirate Sir Ralph hears the sound of a funeral bell announcing his death as he sinks to the bottom of the sea. Southey likens this sound to the Devil

ringing Sir Ralph's death knell with the very same Inchcape bell which the abbot of Aberbrothok had tied to the perilous rock.
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