The Soldier Flashcards
When was it published?
1914
What does it mean that it was published in 1914?
There was still a limited awareness of WWI in society at the time this was published, therefore people were optimistic about it not lasting long.
When did Brooke die and what did this mean?
He died in 1915 in the navy, he wouldn’t have seen trench warfare at its worst.
What could this poem be considered a piece of?
Propaganda, glorifying war and steering the negatives into positives.
How is the poem ironic?
While Brooke talks about the braveness and heroism when fighting for one’s country, he died of Sepsis at 27, not a particularly heroic death.
When did he enlist to fight and how old was he?
When WW1 broke out in 1914, he was 27 years old.
Did he have good education?
Yes, very, having studied at the University of Cambridge.
What was he like at university?
Very popular, and he was especially well-connected in the university’s literary circles.
What did Brooke do prior to WW1?
He travelled widely, including going to the US and Canada to write travel diaries for the Westminster Gazette, a London based newspaper (journalistic work). While he was away he did suffer from homesickness, which may show his strong connection with England.
What did Brooke write after he enlisted but BEFORE he had fought?
A sequence of sonnets collectively entitled ‘1914’. The soldier was the 5th final sonnet in the collection. Despite his popularity, he was far from being a famous writer at that time.
When did Brooke become a literary celebrity?
In 1915 when The Times Literary Supplement published ‘The Soldier’ and the sonnet that came before it, as these poems caught the spirit of the times with a country yet to feel the full impact of war.
When and how did Brooke die?
In April 1915 (before he had done any fighting) on a ship from sepsis that he got from an infected mosquito bite.
‘If I should ____, _____ ____ this of me:’
‘If I should die, think only this of me:’
‘That there’s some ______ of a _______ _____
That is for ____ ______.’
‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.’
‘There ____ be
In that ____ _____ a ______ dust ________;’
‘There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;’
‘A ____ whom England ____, ______, made _____,
____, once, her _______ to ____, her ways to _____;’
‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;’
‘A ____ of England’s, ________ _______ ___,
_______ by the rivers, _____ by ____ of home.’
‘A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’
‘And think, this _____, all ____ ____ away,’
‘And think, this heart, all evil shed away,’
‘A _____ in the _______ mind,’
‘A pulse in the eternal mind,’
‘Her ______ and ____; dreams _____ as ____ day;’
‘Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;’
‘And ________, learnt of ______; and _________,’
‘And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,’
‘In ______ at _____, under an English ______.’
‘In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.’
