Soldier Flashcards
Rough plan
Opening - about dying
Middle - patriotism
End - after death
Opening quotes
‘If I should die, think only this of me.’
‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field/ That is forever England’
Middle quotes
‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware’
‘Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home’
End quotes
‘Give somewhere back the thoughts by England given;’
‘In hearts at peace, under an English heaven’
‘If I should die, think only this of me.’
- 1st person speaker suggests poem could be about anyone, archetype for all
- imperative think directly addresses reader making them feel responsible for carrying out his request
- conditional phrase introduces calm, accepting tone, not fearful of death
- implies people do not need to grieve for his death for reasons to come
- speaker’s desire to control his legacy, in a command
- strips war of its violence in favour of eternal remembrance
‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field/ That is forever England.’
- determiners ‘some’, ‘a’ are vague indicating that the speaker does not care about a location thats foreign and not English
- argues that when he died his fallen body will turn where he dies English
- alliterative adds rhythmic, reflective tone
- enjambment shows how England transcends location and constraints just how the line is not stopped
- caesura creates powerful pause impressing reader upon significance of England
- ‘forever’ has eternal ownership or influence
‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware’
- this asyndeton with caesurae gives many reasons to love England
- personification shows England as a mother figure who metaphorically ‘bore’ the speaker, nurtured and made conscious
- speaker owes everything to England which is where loyalty, desire stems from
- noun ‘dust’ is a biblical allusion ‘from dust you come’ reminding reader of mortality, and how we should not focus on living eternally
‘Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home’
- England is so pure it cleansed the speaker
- ending the octet with the noun home emphasises how important and overwhelming his love for England is
- this purification has religious connotations, and this idea is continued in the sestet
- ‘washed’, ‘blest’ almost seem baptismal - holy
- poem reflects propaganda used to attract men to sign up for war, heroism and eternal reward
- England as naturally beautiful with ‘suns’ and ‘rivers’ connoting peace and tranquility
‘Give somewhere back the thoughts by England given;’
- cyclical line demonstrates how in death the soldier will give back things England gave him in the first place
- soldier’s entire consciousness presented as a gift from England with verb ‘give back’ implying transactional relationship
- war as a noble debt
- Brooke switches between God and England demonstrating the extent of his love
- Christian idea that souls to return to God after death but here Christianity
‘In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.’
- image of death suggests glory and righteousness which is noble
- Heaven will be English as soldier thinks of England as heaven since it is so perfect
- or his belief that England is already heaven but the heavenly afterlife will be England too
- gives idea that death is the doorway to experience a greater England
- strong sense of patriotism
- ‘hearts at peace’ juxtaposes with horrors of war
Structure
- sonnet form with extreme passionate love for England
- mostly iambic pentameter
- soft rhyme scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGG
- octet talks about present, sestet afterlife
Volta shows change of time periods
Context
- Brooke never sought active service although enlisted to fight in WW1
- experienced homesickness often
- buried in Greece
- WW1 described as ‘the war to end all wars’ which is rather ironic
Overview
Brooke uses his poem ‘The Soldier’ as a vehicle to romanticise the conept of patriotic martydom, presenting this act as noble and everlasting. Written in 1914, the outset of World War 1, this reflects the propoganda distributed in the search to recruit men for war.
