Assignment Writing - Paper No.110
Welcome readers! This blog is written as a Part of assignment writing, assigned and Inspired by Dr.Dilip barad sir- Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
● Name :- Hetal Pathak
● Roll No. :- 09
● Semester :- 2 ( Batch 2022 - 2024)
● Enrollment Number :- 4069206420220022
● Paper No. :- 110
● Paper Name :- The History of English Literature : From 1900 to 2000
● Topic :- Poem :- ' The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke
● Submitted to :- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
● Email Address:- hetalpathak28@gmail.com
● Date of Submission :- 31st March 2023
Poem :- ' The Soldier ' by Rupert Brooke
□ Table of Contents :-
▪︎ Introduction
▪︎ Rupert Brooke's experience as a Soldier and how it influenced the Poem
▪︎ Analysis of the Poem
▪︎ Overview of the Poem's structure
▪︎ Themes in the Poem
▪︎ Conclusion
◇ Introduction :-
Rupert Brooke was an English Poet, a well born , gifted, handsome youth whose early death in World war - l, Contributed to his idealised image in the interwar Period. His best known work is the ' Sonnet Sequence 1914.' Few writers have Provoked and much excessive Praise and Scornful condemnation as English Poet Rupert Brooke. Handsome, Charming and talented Brooke was a national hero even before his death in 1915 at the age of 27. He was also known for his boyish good looks , which were said to have Prompted the Irish Poet W.B.Yeats to describe him as ;
" The handsomest Young man in England."
His Poetry with its Unabashed Patriotism and graceful lyricism was revered in a country that was yet to feel the devastating effects of two World wars. Brooke's early years were typical of virtually every English boy who was a member of a well - to - do family. He studied Latin and Greek and began to write Poetry. Brooke Continued to write Poetry, although his Poems from this period are as Eder Comments ;
" Highly derivative , Facile literary exercises."
Between his graduation from Cambridge in 1909 and the start of World war - l in 1914, Brooke spent most of his time in Writing Poetry and travelling. A more realistic Poetry grew out of the war's latter stages and Supplanted Brooke's verse as the most important literary expression of the war. Rupert Brooke's war sonnets Seem ;
" Sentimental and Unrealistic. " - Lehmann
Thus, Rupert Brooke was one of the most important and Prominent literary figures. As Eder states that ;
" Brooke's War sonnets Perfectly Captured the mood of the moment."
◇ About the Poem :-
' The Soldier' Sonnet by Rupert Brooke, Published in 1915 in the Collection 1914. Perhaps his most famous Poem, it reflects British sorrow over Pride in the young man who died in World war - l. It is narrated in the first Person by an English Soldier, the Poem is Sentimental, Patriotic and Epitaphic. In the Closing Sestet , the Poem's speaker Suggests that his soul is eternally linked with England. The Poem's opening lines acquired even greater Poignancy as a result of Brooke's own wartime death.
The Poem is a Petrarchan Sonnet, Which explores the bond between a Patriotic British Soldier and his homeland England. The Petrarchan Sonnet became a major influence on European Poetry.
◇ Rupert Brooke's experience as a Soldier and how it influenced the Poem :-
To illustrate, ' The Soldier' is a Poem narrated in the first Person and it seems to be about him. The Soldier's voice is Rupert Brooke's voice. Even more specifically, Brooke does not talk about a specific , actual event but about how he imagines a Soldier should think and what he should believe, which is rarely seen in this type of Poetry. Most of the other Poets recall stories from their lives, but never really add themselves as a character in the Story.
In the First three lines of the Poem, he over romanticised his possible death on the battlefield:
" If I should die , think only this of me :
That there is some corner of a foreign field ,
That is forever England."
The motif of ' England' is recurring throughout the Poem, denoting some sort of a higher meaning Than just a Country. England takes on the role of a mother figure that sends her children to Protect her from evil and waits for them to come back.
In the Sonnet , Brooke speaks of death as something noble , a possible outcome that the Soldier should not fear, but embrace. If a Soldier Sacrifices himself for his country, his heart would be Purified " All evil shed away".
He would become dust and once more connect himself with nature. Being someone who never saw war for what it really was, he described it as positive and as Patriotic as possible.
Moreover, the fact that he used the form of a Sonnet testified to the fact that he really wanted to glorify Soldiers and war as noble people participating in a noble quest. His literary approach to the subject is as traditional as his view of war.
◇ Analysis of the Poem :-
In the first stanza (the octave of the sonnet) stanza, he talks about how his grave will be England herself, and what it should remind the listeners of England when they see the grave. In the second stanza, the sestet, he talks about this death (sacrifice for England) as redemption; he will become “a pulse in the eternal mind”. He concludes that only life will be the appropriate thing to give to his great motherland in return for all the beautiful and the great things she has given to him, and made him what he is. The soldier-speaker of the poem seeks to find redemption through sacrifice in the name of the country.
The speaker begins by addressing the reader, and speaking to them in the imperative: “think only this of me.” This sense of immediacy establishes the speaker’s romantic attitude towards death in duty. He suggests that the reader should not mourn. Whichever “corner of a foreign field” becomes his grave; it will also become “forever England”. He will have left a monument of England in a forever England”. He will have left a monument in England in a foreign land, figuratively transforming a foreign soil to England. The suggestion that English “dust” must be “richer” represents a real attitude that the people of the Victorian age actually had.
The speaker implies that England is mother to him. His love for England and his willingness to sacrifice is equivalent to a son’s love for his mother; but more than an ordinary son, he can give his life to her. The imagery in the poem is typically Georgina. The Georgian poets were known for their frequent mediations in the English countryside. England’s “flowers”, “her ways to roam”, and “English air” all represent the attitude and pride of the youth.
The soldier also has a sense of beauty of his country that is in fact a part of his identity. In the final line of the first stanza, nature takes on a religious significance for the speaker. He is “washed by the rivers”, suggesting the purification of baptism, and “blest by the sun of home.” In the second stanza, the sestet, the physical is left behind in favour of the spiritual. If the first stanza is about the soldier’s thoughts of this world and England, the second is about his thoughts of heaven and England (in fact, and English heaven).
The images and praises of England run through both the stanzas. In the first stanza Brooke describes the soldier’s grave in a foreign land as a part of England; in the second, that actual English images abound. The sights, sounds, dreams, laughter, friends, and gentleness that England offered him during his life till this time are more than enough for him to thank England and satisfactorily go and die for her. The poet elaborates on what England has granted in the second stanza; ‘sights and sounds’ and all of his “dreams.” A “happy” England filled his life with “laughter” and “friends”, and England characterised by “peace” and “gentleness”. It is what makes English dust “richer” and what in the end guarantees “hearts at peace, under an English Heaven.”
This is a sonnet based on the two major types of the sonnet: Petrarchan or Italian and Shakespearean or English. Structurally, the poem follows the Petrarchan mode; but in its rhyme scheme, it is in the Shakespearean mode. In terms of the structure of ideas, the octave presents reflection; the sestet evaluates the reflection. The first eight lines (octave) is a reflection on the physical: the idea of the soldier’s “dust” buried in a “foreign field.” They urge the readers not to mourn this death, though they implicitly also create a sense of loss. The last six lines (sestet), however, promise redemption: “a pulse in the eternal mind…. under an English heaven”. The rhyme scheme is that of the Shakespearean sonnet: the octave and the sestet consist of three quatrains, rhyming abab cdcd efef and a final rhymed couplet gg. As in Shakespearean sonnets, the dominant metre is iambic.
◇ An Overview of the Poem's Structure :-
The Soldier" is a Petrarchan sonnet. It is split accordingly in two stanzas, an octave followed by a sestet. Also characteristic of a Petrarchan sonnet is the volta, or the turn in direction on the topic. This occurs at the start of the sestet. However, the rhyme scheme combined that of the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet and the Petrarchan sonnet. The rhyme scheme of the octave follows an ABABCDCD pattern, characteristic of the English sonnet. The sestet follows a CDECDE rhyme scheme.
◇ Themes in the Poem :-
Following are the major and important themes that Presented in this Poem 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke. The themes are given as below.
Love Of Country
War and Idealism
Connection to Nature
Death
So , Let us try to understand these themes in detail.
Love Of Country ;-
The speaker refers to his home country seven times throughout the poem. By the third line, readers know where his sense of patriotism lies: with England. England is so intertwined with his soul that should he die in another land while fighting for his country, he will forever leave a little bit of England in that spot. There is an immense sense of pride in the ways England has “shaped” him; the very English air he has breathed has made him a better and stronger man. In the end, the speaker notes what would remain of him if his heart was stripped of all its evil; England would still remain.
The sights and sounds of his home country are part of his heart eternally as he recalls days spent under an “English heaven,” among English friends and English flowers and rivers, “blest” by the English sunshine. He recalls the peace and happiness he felt in England, describing his native country exclusively in positive, pastoral terms. The speaker’s love of and connection to England is transcendent and will persist even after the soldier’s death far from home.
War and Idealism :-
War has ripped the speaker from his home country, leaving him longing to return to England’s peaceful “sights and sounds.” Perhaps it is only through war that the speaker becomes so very aware of his love for and loyalty to England. As he serves his country in another land, potentially facing his own death, he longs for the country he loves. He realises that this war (likely World War I, in which Rupert Brooke himself fought and died) may prevent his ever returning to England, and he therefore realises how much there is to lose. The speaker also feels that ultimately he will be victorious over war because even if he dies in this “foreign land,” he will leave a bit of England there. War cannot separate him from his country as he claims the final victory. Significantly, Brooke omits any discussion of the horrors of battle from his poem, focusing solely on an idealistic description of both England and his own potential death. While many poems written during and after World War I relay haunting imagery of violence and suffering, Brooke’s poem is remarkably serene.
Connection to Nature :-
The things that connect the speaker to England are very much in the natural realm. He has, for instance, been “washed by the rivers” of England. Washing is often symbolic of a spiritual cleansing, establishing a link between the speaker’s very soul and the natural world in his home country. In England, he is “blest by suns of home”; this natural connection provides symbolic links to knowledge and goodness. The sun connects him to a sense of faithfulness and constancy in England. The natural world of England is also figured as generous and abundant; England has "given” the speaker “her flowers to love” and “her ways to roam.” This connection to the natural world is established in the very first line as the speaker tells the reader that should he die, part of England will always remain in the country where he falls. If his blood is spilled or his body is never recovered, the speaker acknowledges that he also is part of the natural world that has been formed in England—he is “a dust whom England bore”—and he will return to his most natural state, becoming a “richer dust” than that of this “foreign land.”
Death :-
The theme of death is made known to the readers from the first line of the poem - “If I should die” – and is developed by presenting the speaker’s attitude to the possibility of death in war. What is interesting about the approach to death in this poem is the fact that this event is not seen as the end or as something sad and to be feared. The speaker does not fear death, because he sees it as a meaningful act for his country, as the ultimate patriotic statement.
◇ Conclusion :-
To conclude, The Poem - ' The Soldier' written by Rupert Brooke Portrays emotions on war through their writing. Brooke believed that dying for your country during war was beautiful and Powerful. Soldier's wrote Poetry during war period or war time because they needed to express their feelings when there was no one to talk to. These Soldiers, however, did not know that these Personal and emotional pieces would one day become famous Worldwide.
[ Words :- 2354]
[ Images :- 05 ]
Works Cited :-
“Rupert Brooke.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rupert-brooke.
“The Soldier.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/The-Soldier-poem-by-Brooke.
Alic Filip. “The Portrayal of a Soldier in the Poetry of World War I.” Academia.edu, 16 Mar. 2020, www.academia.edu/42234542/The_Portrayal_of_a_Soldier_in_the_Poetry_of_World_War_I.
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke: Summary and Critical Analysis, www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-soldier.html.
“The Soldier.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com, www.enotes.com/topics/soldier/themes.
“Soldier Themes: Course Hero.” Soldier Themes | Course Hero, www.coursehero.com/lit/Soldier/themes
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