The Soldier Flashcards
What year was The Soldier published in?
1914
Who wrote The Soldier?
Rupert Brooke
What is the plot of The Soldier?
-WW1 soldier thinking of death & patriotic thoughts of England
What are the themes of The Soldier?
-Death
-England
-Memory
-Faith
-Christianity
What is the context of The Soldier?
-Before WW1
-Pastoral poetry
-Wants people to see him as patriotic when he dies
What is the form and structure/ concepts of The Soldier?
-Written as a sonnet-> love poems
-Brooke’s love poem to his country
-Pessimistic-> optimistic
-Pastoral countryside
-Fighting for your country
-Mortality-> being remembered
-Petrarchan- concept/reflection (VOLTA)
-Nature/imagery
“that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.”
“forever England”- his English bones would get buried there
“In that rich earth a richer dust concealed”
“rich” “richer” - polypoton-> emphasis
“rich”- you will be worth more if you die for your country
“dust”- ‘dust to dust’-> Christian notion of death
“A dust who England bore, shaped, made aware”
“A dust who England bore, shaped, made aware”- England is personified as a giver and female archaic
“A pulse in the eternal mind”
-Semantic field of peace & afterlife creates the speakers overall idea that England will continue to look after him once dead
“breathing English air”
-semantic field of nature, sets a romantic tone of beauty-> reason why they fight
“In hearts at peace, under an English heaven”
“Hearts”- death seen in positive light
“under an English heaven”- preposition England will look after and reward him in heaven-> optimistic
“heaven”- England is best-> romanticising
What main theme does The Soldier fall under?
War-> the problem of aestheticizing the horror of war
