Poetry – “The Soldier”

Mother England Imagine loving something so much that you would risk your life for it. In Rupert Brooke’s poem, “The Soldier”, Brooke shows the love that a soldier has for his country, England. This poem is an Italian sonnet, takes place during World War I, and is written from Rupert Brooke’s point of view himself. Brooke shows how the soldier feels about war and how he feels that dying in the process of fighting for his country is the best way to die.

The mood of this poem is warm and happy. The author has good feelings towards war, therefore the tone is optimistic. Brooke uses metaphors, personification, and repetition to help make the theme clearer. The theme throughout the poem is love and death. In the first part of this poem, Brooke is explaining how life should be if he were to die. He starts line one by saying, “If I were to die, think only this of me. ” He is trying to say that if he were to die that no one should mourn about it.

Next, in lines two and three, Brooke says, “That there’s some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England,” which means when a soldier dies he will be buried on some other country’s land, but because the soldier is English that part of their land will remain English. Brooke uses the word “forever” to show that the soldier that has died there fought for his country and has deserved that part of the enemy’s field. “In that rich earth a richer dust concealed” Brooke uses the word dust to actually mean the dead bodies (L4). He is saying that in the ground, of another country, is England’s soldiers.

He considers them “richer”, thus showing his love again for England, calling them better; “richer” than any other country. Brooke states in lines five and six, “A dust which England bore, shaped, made aware / Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,” as a continuation and a start to another metaphor. Once again he says “dust” which means the bodies. Next he personifies England to be like a mother figure towards the soldiers, which again shows the love he has for his country by giving it the honorary position as his mother. A body of England’s breathing English air, / Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home” Brooke emphasizes the thought of him belonging to England (LL7-8). Then the thought of “home” comes up, talking about their families back home. Their families are praying for them while at war. In the last part of the poem, Brooke talks about how life should be after death, looking back. “And think, this heart, all evil shed away” was said in line nine to say that all of the bad things would be gone now because he’d be in heaven, with God.

He then says, “A pulse in the eternal mind, no less / Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given” (LL10-11). In the in the first part of the poem we were told that England has made the soldier, then the turn comes in, and now in the last part the soldier is giving everything to God, because of how much he cherishes England. In lines twelve and thirteen Brooke then continues with, “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; / And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness” personifying England as a human, she.

Brooke is remembering back to all of the good things that he remembers from England. Once again he would be giving these good memories from England to God himself once he was in heaven. Brooke ends the poem by saying, “In hearts at peace, under an English heaven” (L14). With this being said, by this time he would be at peace in heaven, he would feel that his job is done, since he would have died fighting for his country.

Now he would have given everything he loves and all of the good memories from England to God, so he would feel that he has changed heaven into an “English heaven”. The author’s use of metaphors and personification helped support the theme. Brooke’s use of personification throughout the poem helped the reader understand the soldier’s love for his country by personifying England as his mother. He also used repetition throughout the whole poem to emphasize his love for England. The themes that he made most apparent were love and death.

He was trying to show that he was fine with dying because he was dying while fighting for something that he loves so dearly. While this poem was a war poem, it was also a love poem. He expressed his love for his country through war, by fighting for it. Brooke’s poem relates to human experience because most people don’t have to personally go through war. We know and thank the people who go off and risk their lives for their countries, but Brooke shows us through this poem that he fought for his country for a much deeper meaning.