The Inchcape Rock
by Robert Southey
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Robert Southey's ballad 'The Inchcape Rock' teaches that evil is always punished. The kindly Abbot of Aberbrothok had fixed a warning bell on a buoy over the dangerous Inchcape Rock, so that sailors, hearing it in stormy seas, could avoid the reef and blessed him for it. On a calm, sunny day, the wicked pirate Sir Ralph the Rover, out of sheer malice and jealousy, rows out and cuts the bell from the buoy, so 'the next who comes to the Rock won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok'. Sir Ralph then sails away and grows rich with plunder. Returning to Scotland months later through a thick, dark haze, unable to see land, he ironically wishes he could hear the Inchcape Bell, and at that very moment his ship strikes the Inchcape Rock and sinks. As he drowns in despair, cursing himself, he seems to hear the Devil below ringing his funeral knell. The poem is a powerful lesson in poetic justice: as you sow, so shall you reap.
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'The Inchcape Rock' by Robert Southey is a narrative ballad based on a legend. It contrasts the goodness of the Abbot of Aberbrothok with the wickedness of the pirate Sir Ralph the Rover, and delivers a clear moral: those who do evil meet with fitting punishment, poetic justice.
The Abbot's kind deed
The poem opens on a perfectly calm sea, so still that the waves 'did not move the Inchcape Bell'. The kindly Abbot of Aberbrothok had placed this warning bell on a buoy over the dangerous, hidden Inchcape Rock. In stormy weather, when the rock was covered by the swelling sea, the bell's warning ring saved the mariners, who 'blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok' for it.
The pirate's wicked act
On a bright, joyful spring day, the pirate Sir Ralph the Rover, whose 'mirth was wickedness', spots the buoy. Out of sheer malice and jealousy of the Abbot's good name, he has his men row him to the rock, bends over and cuts the bell from the buoy. As it sinks 'with a gurgling sound', he gloats that now 'the next who comes to the Rock won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok'.
The pirate's punishment
Sir Ralph sails away, roams the seas plundering, and grows rich. Months later he steers back toward Scotland, but a thick haze hides the sun and land, and the wind dies away. In the darkness he cannot tell where he is, and ironically wishes he could hear the Inchcape Bell, the very warning he had destroyed.
Suddenly the ship strikes 'with a shivering shock', 'O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!' As the waves rush in and the ship sinks, Sir Ralph tears his hair and curses himself in despair. In his dying moment he seems to hear a dreadful sound, as if the Devil below were ringing the Inchcape Bell as his funeral knell, fitting punishment for his crime.