Question

What are the key events that occur in “The Inchcape Rock”? Write an objective summary of the poem that focuses on important events and ideas. Your response should be one or two complete paragraphs.
The Inchcape Rock
by Robert Southey
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was as still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion;
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign or sound of their shock
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
The Abbot of Aberbrothok
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.
When the rock was hid by the surges’ swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock
And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothok.
The sun in heav

Answer 1

A ship on the ocean is floating so still upon a sea with so little waves that not even the bell on warning buoy is made to ring.  The setting is cheery—a bright, sunny with the sound of chirping birds—that made Sir Ralph whistle.  However, in this happy setting, Sir Ralph rows from his ship to the buoy and cuts off the bell in wickedness.  As he is sailing away to Scotland back on his ship, the weather turns and the ship is tossed about all day in a storm.  His crew begins to fear they may be close to land again, and the mention how they wish they were able to hear the bell Sir Ralph had cut.  The ship runs aground and begins to sink, and as it sinks and in with Sir Ralph’s “dying fear,” he can hear the sound of the bell ringing as if it were being rung by the Devil.