The Solider - Quotes, Context and Form & Structure
- Created by: Noah_S
- Created on: 22-03-19 19:57
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- The Solider
- Rupert Brooke
- 1914
- Context
- WW1
- Used as a recruiting poem - yet Brooke had little experiences with war.
- People were idealistic and naïve about war in 1914, seeing it as something noble and heroic
- Previous poems about war was romanticised.
- Brooke was very patriotic about Britain.
- Poem can be seen as a love letter to England.
- WW1
- Beginning
- "If
I should die, think only this of me"
- Ironically, the speaker begins the poem with "if" suggesting the uncertainty if the speaker will die - even though he Brooke died 4 months later.
- The speaker is possibly referring specifically to death from the war - maybe thinking in advance before heading onto the battlefield.
- "a
foreign field / That
is for ever England"
- "foreign field" refers to t he battleground, but the use of enjambment suggests that England is there to stay.
- Shows a clear patriotic view that the speaker thinks of England - it is ongoing and continuous.
- "If
I should die, think only this of me"
- Form and Structure
- Written in Sonnet form.
- Often used in love poems.
- Contains two parts - an octet and sestet.
- Written with Iambic Pentameter.
- Often used in love poems.
- Usually represents the human heart.
- Written in Sonnet form.
- End
- "In hearts at peace, under
an English heaven"
- "In hearts at peace" - shows death in a positive light. The soldier is fully accepting his death under the idea of an "English heaven".
- The preposition "under" suggests that England will continue to look after him after death and that he will be rewarded in "heaven" for serving his country.
- "And
think, this heart, all evil shed away"
- Contrast between "heart" and "evil" - showing the soldier views England as good while her opponents as evil.
- Optimistic - it shows that the speaker thinks that what he is doing (and by extension, war) will help and solve problems in society.
- "In hearts at peace, under
an English heaven"
- Middle
- "blest
by suns of home"
- Gives a semantic field of nature in England - celebrating England's finer details as the reasons the soldier fights.
- Double meaning on the word "suns", as it could also be "sons" - showing that he is fighting for the people in England.
- "A
dust
whom England bore, shaped, made aware"
- England is personified as a female - most likely as a mother. The speaker feels that England "bore, shaped" the land, giving the impression England is a giver of life.
- Carries on with the speaker being patriotic about England, as he is fighting for the thing that gave him life - his country.
- "blest
by suns of home"
- Rupert Brooke
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