Robert Southey’s poems very often deliver moral lessons. This poem The Inchcape Rock is not an exception here. It shows us how jealousy is an incurable defect of human character.

People get jealous at others’ success and achievements and pay the price themselves. It does not make them any better-positioned in achieving something similar, but harm them in many ways.

In the poem Ralph the Rover got jealous at the Abbot of Aberbrothok’s fame for putting a bell on the perilous Inchcape Rock and saving the passing ships and a lot of lives in bad weather. Out of his jealousy the rover decided to cut the bell and put an end to the Abbot’s fame. He didn’t mind that it would affect so many people and even himself in the long run.

Yes, there was the intention of looting the ships by putting them in danger. But he could do that otherwise. So, behind the act of cutting the bell the main thing was his jealousy for the Abbot. And justifiably the rover had to pay the price for his evil intention and act. He devil below the sea rang his death-knell when his ship hit the rock by losing the way in bad weather. This proves how a man becomes blind even to his own cause when he gets jealous.