Common people had to pay a hefty price for the ‘famous victory’ in the Battle of Blenheim. 

• The whole countryside was wasted with fire and sword. People’s houses were burnt down and they were left with no place to live.
• Many common people including childing mothers and new-born babies were killed.
• Thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed in the battle. Their bodies lay rotting in the sun ‘after the field was won’.

Thus the poet presents a picture of death and destruction caused by war through this poem.