The Soldier - By Rupert Brooke

The Soldier

By Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

              

               Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915) was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". He was also known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England".

          As the title of the poem suggests, it is about a soldier who is in extensive love with his motherland and wishes to end his life and get buried at the same. The poem starts with the concept of death in the mind of the soldier, and wishes that if he dies, he should be buried at a place which is forever England. England as a land consists of the richness which he has observed throughout his life and has found memories associated with it. If the soldier die in another country, wherever he maybe buried but that place where he is lying is an England, because the soldier contains his life memories in him and the body and soul belongs to England.

          He further says that this is the land where he has born and brought up and has given him all the awareness about what is good and what is bad. This country has given him many memories wherein he used to roam around in the country and was blessed by pure rivers and the wish of sun.

         In the second stanza he continuous to give tribute to the land where he belongs, where he has learnt everything and now he wants to give back his thoughts, moral values back to England. His past in this country was full of laughter, friends, and extreme gentleness in the atmosphere around, this country is as good as heaven. Therefore, he wishes that whenever his end come, it should be in his native land.