THE SOLDIER Flashcards
Poet, date, key themes
Rupert Brooke, , confllict / love / patronism
POET CONTEXT
1887 -1915
Died early in WW1 without writing about gritty reality / horrors told by Wilfred Owen, Siegrfried Sassoon
Died from septicaemia form a mosquito bite on board a ship ( ironic ‘heroic’ death lmao)
Very young -> excitable, impressionistic, idealistic
POEM CONTEXT
Written NOV + DEC 1914 -> only a few months after war broke out -> people still optimisitic and patriotic
Poem read out easter sunday 1915 -> Brooke and ‘the soldier’ establishment and patriotic -> used almost like propaganda for the perfect soldier and view on war from then on
Since then has fallen out of favour -> JINGOISTIC
FORM AND STRUCTURE
SONNET -> traditional LOVE POETRY -> emphasizes ptaronism –> OR JINGOISTIC???????
Love poem to England
Traditional, conventional form -> traditional conventional views ( ie why it appeals to the establishment)
Poise, grandeur, classical tone = REVERENTIAL, CELEBRATORY
Link to?
London? = Corruption
Blind adoration of corrupt society
Powerful ingranation, importance of opening eyes and looking through childs perspective
Is Brooke already doing this however and taking a romantic view on the war?]
Ozymandias = power love nature
Unconventional sonnet conveys innapropriate love
‘Think only this of me’
‘only this’
Emphatic adverb emphasizes his sole purpose in life / his sole identity is DEVOTED to England
Imperitive command reminiscient of that of a soldier
‘Some corner of a foreign field’
Dismissive of other nationalities?
Figuratively suggests dying in a foreign place will turn that place england,
‘Forever England’
Metaphorically / hyperbollically -> his idnetity is his englishness , in war people limited to friends and foes , england means friend
Repetition / personification of ‘England’
Devotion
motherly loyalty , love
England is a symbol of hope for him
‘Washed by rivers, bless’d by suns of home’
Typical of Georgian poets imagery, frequent meditations in englsih countryside and pride in pre industrial britain
Naturalistic metaphors highlights supremaccy of England, love of England ,devotion and connection, he was born by england, raised by england
‘Laughter learnt of friends’
Melifluos alliteration conveys nostalgic beauuty and harmony, juxtaposed to brutalities of war
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