The Soldier by Rupert Brooke: Poem and Analysis

Original Text:

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.

In the twentieth century, England produced a group of poets, known as the War Poets of England, who participated in and painted the multiple hues of the First World War and immortalized it in their verses. The group comprised of, depending on whether they wrote before or after the war, both proponents and opponents of war. Written months before the horrors of the First World War engulfed the European sensibilities, The Soldier is perceived as an embodiment of the patriotic fervor that guided countless youth into the fields of death. Rupert Brooke, whose fame owes a lot to the poem, was also a soldier, who died in his prime during the First World War. The poem, written in the form of a sonnet, is a glorification of the War and the martyrdom for England, intended to lure youth to the war front to defend their motherland. The poem unveils in the manner of a message by the soldier who foresees a possible martyrdom that awaits him in the war front. He says,

“If I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is forever England.”

He tells his loved ones that in case of his death and burial at some foreign country, it is to be remembered not for his physical absence in their lives or for the possible future they could have had in his presence. They should only think that by his death, there is some corner of that foreign country that he made, forever, England, his motherland. The depth of the lines and the following ones lies in its foundation in The Book of Genesis, where God tells Adam: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. The soldier considers his body as the dust of England that his soul leaves behind at its departure, like a signature, a flag that marks territory. He continues to enlighten us more about the dust that he would become,

“There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;”

The line is highly representative of the pre-war British sense of superiority and complacency that had its roots in the dominance Britain had achieved in the world scenario during the reign of its longest ruling monarch, Queen Victoria. However, the superiority that the poet bestows on his own country over the foreign land doesn’t make the latter the unworthy antagonist. Reminiscent of the American author Robert Greene’s words, “Without a worthy opponent, a man or group cannot grow stronger”,  the foreign land has been addressed as “that rich earth”, making the opponent worthy enough for the rivalry, the sacrifice and also for his “richer” dust to be concealed. The Soldier continues to exude patriotism,

“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.”

The poet justifies the superiority of his “richer dust” by ushering the listener’s or reader’s attention to its origin, England. The dust is richer because the body it was, was carried, nurtured and given a conscience by England. The Soldier, here also intends to create a sense of gratitude and an obligation in the prospective future soldiers, for all that the motherland has done for them. The soldier reminds that the country gave everything they needed once: flowers to love, ways to roam and its worthy air to breathe. The word ‘once’, seems to be intended to create a sense of nostalgia. The then sense of superiority reflects throughout these lines as our soldier poet monopolizes everything with an English badge of Authority. The air, the water and even the sun has a stamp on it. The poet uses Christian images of Baptism In the last line of the octave, where the plural use of the word suns, can be read as a wordplay implying the Sun and the Son, Jesus Christ, all English. The repetition of the word England is also notable, in the soldiers attempt to inculcate patriotism.

“And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less”

In the final sestet, the Soldier essays to create a positive image of martyrdom by portraying an after-life scenario. The poet implores the people to think that, having shed away all the evil, that, in the words of Hamlet “Flesh is heir to”, with its disintegration, the poet has become a pulse of life in the eternal, all- encompassing mind of the God, but reassures that nothing too irrelevant or expendable.

“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.”

The phrase ‘no less’ that tends to imply at the relevance of his soul in the Eternal Mind, also poses to be a part of the next line where he announces that having become part of the Eternal Mind, he would have achieved a godlike state, and would have become a partaker in god’s act of rewarding the good in the world using which, he will make sure that he repays ‘without any dearth’, the good thoughts, the beautiful sounds, sights and laughter with blessings in the hearts that would live peacefully under the English Heaven.