Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

1914: 5. THE SOLDIER by RUPERT BROOKE

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: IF I SHOULD DIE, THINK ONLY THIS OF ME
Last Line: IN HEARTS AT PEACE, UNDER AN ENGLISH HEAVEN.
Subject(s): DEATH; ENGLAND; ENVIRONMENT; FIELDS; FLOWERS; PATRIOTISM; SOLDIERS; SOLDIERS' WRITINGS; WORLD WAR I; DEAD, THE; ENGLISH; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; ECOLOGY; CONSERVATION; PASTURES; MEADOWS; LEAS; FIRST WORLD WAR;
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.


Home: PoetryExplorer.net