The soldier

?
  • Created by: Annagc
  • Created on: 18-03-17 17:45

Content

'The soldier'

  • It is about Brooke's idelised verision of war
  • The defeinite article sugests a heroic and perfect soldier when in reality millions of men went to war who died and were forgotten about 
  • It has a patriotic mood because it's is about how importat England is too Brooke
1 of 5

Context

  • Rupert Brooke died in 1915 when he was 27
  • He never experienced trench warfare 
  • His five war sonnets are romantic and patriotic 
  • His view of war was the same as Britain's at the start of world war one
2 of 5

Narration

'If i should die, think only this of me'

  • He is realistic about the possibility of dying but he romantasises it by creating a heroic tone

'That there's some corner of a foreign field/That's forever England'

  • He thinks that he embodies England and he is dramatic and spiritual as he suggets that his body will transform a foreign land into England
3 of 5

Devices

Repetition of England shows patriotism

'A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware'

  • Personification - he sees England as his mother and the power of three shows he is very grateful for making him the person that he is which is why he is willing to die for her

'Happy' 'laughter' 'peace'

  • Semantic field of happiness shows his overly positive feelings about war

'And think, this heart, all evil shed away/ A pulse in the eternal mind'

  • Semantic field of body parts suggests the idea dying for his country will make him feel alive as when he dies he will have 'a pulse'
4 of 5

Structure

  • Starts as a Shakespearena sonnet representing England
  • Changes to a petrachan sonnet to represent fighting away from home 

'If i should die' and 'English heaven'

  • Starts and ends with the idea of death showing that lots of men went into war prepared to die for their country and Brook almost wanted to die for England.
5 of 5

Comments

cgrace176

Report

needs more detail to understand poem more

Picklesa14

Report

I need a mind map with all the anthology poems on that would help a lot

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all AQA Anthology resources »