We are being taught the poem “The Inchcape Rock” because it’s a didactic poem, delivering a good message, a learning to its readers. That learning is the known old adage “As you sow, so shall you reap”. This is a learning that makes us morally sound. It teaches us to be good human beings to expect anything good to happen to ourselves.

Yes, one may argue that we can learn the proverb without the poem. But the poem makes this learning more effective by presenting a meaningful story to us.