The Full Text of “The Dead (III)”
1Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
2 There’s none of these so lonely and poor of old,
3 But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
4These laid the world away; poured out the red
5Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
6 Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
7 That men call age; and those who would have been,
8Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
9Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
10 Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain,
11Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
12 And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
13And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
14 And we have come into our heritage.
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“The Dead (III)” Introduction
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"The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence by Rupert Brooke, titled "1914" and published in the volume 1914 and Other Poems (1915). The poem is an elegy for the fallen UK soldiers of World War I, which had broken out in 1914 and would last until 1918. With patriotic fervor, the speaker praises the soldiers' sacrifice, claiming that their heroism has restored their country's "Holiness" and "Honour." Brooke himself would die in the war in 1915, while serving in the British navy. A companion sonnet, "The Dead (IV)," follows in the same sequence.
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“The Dead (III)” Summary
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Bugles, blow a fanfare for these dead soldiers, who are rich in honors! None were so poor and solitary in life that they haven't, in dying, given the rest of us gifts more precious than gold. They set the world aside; they shed their youthful blood like sweet wine. They sacrificed future years of work and happiness, and the old age whose peacefulness exceeds all hope. They sacrificed the children they would have had, the sons who would have carried on their names.
Blow a fanfare, bugles! When we were deficient, these soldiers brought us holiness (which we'd lacked for a long time), and love and pain. Honor has returned to earth like a king, lavishly bestowing its virtue on us. Nobleness is part of our lives once more, and our country has lived up to its lofty past.
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“The Dead (III)” Themes
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Wartime Sacrifice and Glory
A patriotic elegy written during wartime, "The Dead (III)" praises the fallen UK soldiers of World War I as heroic martyrs. In grand, celebratory tones, the poem calls for a fanfare on behalf of the "rich Dead" who have given their lives for their country. It frames the soldiers' sacrifice as holy and redemptive: a tragic, yet noble exchange of "youth" and "joy" for national honor and glory. Their martyrdom, the speaker argues, has reminded their fellow citizens what abstractions like "Love," "Pain," and "Holiness" are all about, proving the country worthy of its ancient "heritage." In other words, thanks to these soldiers' present-day heroism, the country has lived up to its heroic past.
The poem portrays death in war as a glorious, patriotic sacrifice that makes even the humblest soldiers nobler. It calls on military "bugles" to "blow out" a grand lament in honor of the fallen, whom it praises as the dead as "the rich Dead." This phrase suggests that even the "lonel[iest] and poor[est]" among these soldiers has become "rich" in glory.
By listing everything the dead soldiers "gave up"—including "youth," "work," "joy," old "age," and future kids—the poem further implies that they're selfless heroes for the cause. The poem acknowledges that, in sacrificing the "sons" they might have fathered (and who would have carried on their name), the soldiers gave up a kind of "immortality." But it suggests that they've gained another kind by dying nobly and ensuring that their country lives on.
In general, according to the poem, the soldiers' sacrifice has been profoundly redemptive: it has restored the country's integrity, its appreciation of life, and its ancient glory. The poem claims that the soldiers, in dying, have "brought" their country virtues it had long "lacked," including "Holiness," "Honour," and "Nobleness." It also suggests that their deaths have reminded the country what "Love" and "Pain" truly mean. The poem concludes that "we have come into our heritage": that is, the current generation has lived up to the heroes and legends of UK history (which the poet views with nationalistic pride).
"The Dead (III)" forms part of a longer sequence called "1914," written to mark the outbreak of World War I. It embodies the kind of patriotic war fever that other WWI poets, including Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, would soon begin to scorn as simplistic and false.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Dead (III)”
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Lines 1-3
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There’s none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.The poem begins with an apostrophe to "bugles," trumpet-like instruments often used in military ceremonies. In an impassioned exclamation, the speaker urges these instruments to "Blow out," or play their call, "over the rich Dead."
As will soon become clear, these "Dead" are soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in wartime. "The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence called "1914," written after the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918); the broader sequence establishes that the speaker is an Englishman honoring the UK casualties of that war.
Bugles were once used in combat situations—for example, to signal a call to arms or ceasefire—so it's possible that the poem is set on or near a battlefield strewn with dead soldiers. However, the poem's ceremonious tone makes a funeral or memorial setting more likely.
The speaker stresses that, no matter how humble their background in life, these soldiers are equally glorious in death:
There’s none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.That is, no matter how poor or solitary they were "of old" (in their pre-war lives), these soldiers now belong to a grand company of heroes, who have given their country "gifts" more precious than gold. These gifts fall into two basic categories: the things they've sacrificed (given up), and the benefits their sacrifice has brought. The rest of the first stanza will list items in the first category; the second will cover the second.
Since the poem uses musical imagery (the bugle call) as a framing device, it's no surprise that the language itself is highly musical. The poem is a sonnet and written in iambic pentameter. That means its lines consist of five iambs, poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed beat pattern. This meter features variations here and there to keep things interesting and add emphasis, as in line 1:
Blow out, | you bu- | gles, o- | ver the | rich Dead!
The fourth foot here is a pyrrhic (unstressed-unstressed) while the final foot is a spondee (stressed-stressed). These variations on the iambic meter call readers' attention to the "rich Dead" the poem is honoring. (It's possible to scan the first foot as a spondee too, adding some oomph to the speaker's command to the bugles to "Blow out.")
Finally, these opening lines are packed with alliteration; in line 1, for example, emphatic /b/ sounds ("Blow"/"bugles") mimic the powerful sound of the bugle call itself. In lines 2-3, alliterative phrases ("There's none of these"; "gifts than gold") begin and end the sentence on a harmonious note.
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Lines 4-7
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age;
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Lines 7-8
and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality. -
Lines 9-10
Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain, -
Lines 11-14
Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.
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“The Dead (III)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
The poem uses a great deal of alliteration, both for its musical qualities and for dramatic emphasis. Take the first three lines, for example:
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There’s none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.The emphatic /b/ alliteration in line 1 mimics the sharp, startling call of the "bugles" themselves. Thanks to this sound effect, readers can almost hear the buglers loudly "Blow[ing] out" air through their instruments.
The second sentence of the poem (lines 2-3) both begins and ends with alliterative phrases: "There's none of these" and "rarer gifts than gold." Nearly every subsequent line contains some alliteration as well. It's as if the music invoked in the first line carries over into the rest of the poem, creating a highly musical whole.
In fact, the second stanza begins by repeating the alliteration that kicked off the first—and throws in two extra /b/ words for good measure:
Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,
The intensified alliteration signals a heightening of the poem's emotions, as the speaker demands music worthy of the soldiers' sacrifice. In general, this second stanza is even more lavishly alliterative than the first, from the opening phrase right through the ringing final words:
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
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Apostrophe
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Personification
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Metaphor
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Repetition
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“The Dead (III)” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Bugles
- Rich
- Of old
- But
- Laid the world away
- Unhoped
- Serene
- Immortality
- Dearth
- Royal wage
- Heritage
Bugles-
Trumpet-like instruments often used, as here, in military ceremonies (including funerals).
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Dead (III)”
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Form
"The Dead (III)" is a sonnet, meaning that it's a rhymed, 14-line poem in iambic pentameter. (Lines of iambic pentameter contain five strong stresses and alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables. Their rhythm sounds like this: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.)
This poem uses a variation on the structure of the Italian (a.k.a. Petrarchan) sonnet. Like a typical Italian sonnet, it's divided into an octave and a sestet: a stanza of eight lines followed by a stanza of six lines.
The transition between them, which usually occurs in line 9, is known as the volta or "turn." In this case, line 9 starts with a revision ("Blow, bugles, blow!") of the phrase that began line 1 ("Blow out, you bugles").
However, the rhyme scheme here is different than in a typical Italian sonnet. Whereas the octave would conventionally rhyme ABBAABBA, this one rhymes ABBACDDC—thus bringing it a bit closer to the English sonnet, whose first eight lines conventionally rhyme ABABCDCD.
In fact, most of the poems in Brooke's "1914" sequence combine features of the Italian and English sonnets (only "Safety" fits the English pattern perfectly). Despite their nationalistic names, both kinds of sonnet are fixtures of the English-language poetic tradition. The sonnet is also traditionally associated with love, including tragic and sacred love. Brooke is drawing on all these associations as an English poet writing about "Love," "Pain," "Holiness," and patriotism (love of country).
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Meter
As a traditional English-language sonnet, "The Dead (III)" is written in iambic pentameter. This means that its lines generally contain five iambs, or metrical feet with a "da-DUM" rhythm. The rhythm of a full iambic pentameter line sounds like "da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM."
Readers can hear this pattern clearly in line 8, for example:
Their sons, | they gave, | their im- | mortal- | ity.
However, the pattern varies sometimes. Metrical variations keep a poem's rhythm from becoming too predictable and are sometimes used for emphasis or dramatic effect. Readers can hear one example in the very first line:
Blow out, | you bu- | gles, o- | ver the | rich Dead!
Here, the first three feet of the line are iambic, but the fourth is a pyrrhic (it contains two unstressed syllables) and the fifth is a spondee (it contains two stressed syllables; it's possible to read the first foot, "Blow out," as a spondee as well). This metrical variation draws the reader's attention to the phrase "rich Dead"; in other words, it places special emphasis on the soldiers the poet wishes to honor.
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Rhyme Scheme
"The Dead (III)" is a traditional sonnet with a slightly unconventional rhyme scheme:
ABBACDDC EFEGFG
For the most part, the poem follows the conventions of the Italian sonnet: it's divided into an octave (eight-line unit) and a sestet (six-line unit) that rhyme in different configurations. However, the octave of a traditional Italian sonnet rhymes ABBAABBA, not ABBACDDC. By bringing C and D rhymes into these first eight lines, Brooke is drawing on the conventions of the English sonnet, which rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
In terms of its rhyme scheme, then, the poem is an Italian sonnet with a little touch of Englishness! Despite their nationalistic names, however, both the "Italian" and "English" variants have a long history in the English poetic tradition. No wonder Brooke used the sonnet form to explore English tradition, or "heritage" (line 14).
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“The Dead (III)” Speaker
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The speaker of "The Dead (III)" is a voice of patriotic pride and fervor, a strident supporter of their country's cause in World War I. The poem is part of a longer sequence titled "1914," after the year the war broke out, and the most famous sonnet in the sequence, "The Soldier," refers to the speaker's English nationality. (Its opening lines are: "If I should die, think only this of me: / That there’s some corner of a foreign field / That is for ever England.")
Here, there's no explicit mention of the UK or England. However, the "king" simile in lines 11-12 gestures toward the history of English royalty, and the speaker's references to "us"/"our" (lines 3, 9, 13-14) seem to encompass their entire country. Basically, the speaker adopts the role of "voice of the people."
The speaker expresses deep gratitude toward those who "gave" everything for their country (lines 5-8), along with the opinion that their sacrifice has been worthwhile. Lines 9-14 make the case that the fallen soldiers have restored their country's "Honour," "Nobleness," and so on. These lines express the real-life views of the poet, Rupert Brooke, who died while serving in the British navy during the war.
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“The Dead (III)” Setting
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The poem's implied setting may be a military cemetery, where English soldiers, fallen in World War I, have been laid to rest. Another possibility is that it takes place near a WWI battlefield, where the "Dead" have spilled their blood ("poured out the red / Sweet wine of youth"). The "bugles" (typically featured at military funerals) appear to be playing a call to honor the dead.
The poem also implicitly refers to the UK, the poet's home country. According to the speaker, the soldiers fighting and dying abroad have had a major impact back home. Lines 9-14 describe a society where "Honour" seems to have returned like "a king, to earth," and where "Love," "Pain," "Holiness," and "Nobleness" are now a part of everyday life.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Dead (III)”
Literary Context
Rupert Brooke was an English poet who lived from 1887 to 1915. He wrote poetry from an early age, attended Cambridge University, and joined the English Navy during the first year of World War I (1914). However, he died the following year—not in warfare, as the patriotic tone of "The Dead (III)" might lead the reader to predict, but from an infection following a mosquito bite. His poetic influences include W.B. Yeats, Charles Baudelaire, John Keats, and Oscar Wilde.
Brooke's poetry was immensely popular from its first publication, capturing the nervous excitement of a nation at war. "The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence titled "1914," which also includes a companion sonnet, "The Dead (IV)," and his most famous poem, "The Soldier."
Brooke's death early in the conflict—before it became an exhausting multi-year bloodbath—helps explain why his poems present a romantic vision of war and nationhood. His poetry came to exemplify the spirit of the patriotic soldier, willing to lay down his life for the good of his country. In fact, Winston Churchill, England's prime minister during World War II, described Brooke as "all that one could wish England's noblest sons to be."
Of course, Brooke's idealized vision doesn't reflect the horrific realities of a conflict in which millions died. Accordingly, it's worth comparing "The Dead (III)" with other examples of English WWI poetry, which became extremely grim as the war dragged on. Wilfried Owen's poems, for example, are jaded, weary, and disturbing; his famous "Dulce et Decorum Est," for example, could serve as a retort to Brooke. Siegfried Sassoon and Isaac Rosenberg fought in the same conflict and wrote many gritty, skeptical war poems, including Sassoon's "Attack" and Rosenberg's "Break of Day in the Trenches."
At the same time, Brooke follows a long tradition of English writers who have idealized England. "The Dead (III)" touts the UK's proud "heritage," as well as the "Holiness," "Honour," and "Nobleness" its people have supposedly regained in the course of war. Essentially, the poet believes his country is a force for good in the world.
Historical Context
At the time it was fought, World War I was known as "the war to end all wars." This phrase, of course, proved tragically inaccurate when World War II broke out a generation later. Around 16 million people died directly in WWI, and many more perished in the great flu outbreaks and genocides (for example, the Armenian genocide) that followed.
WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which ruled a large section of Central and Eastern Europe at the time). The assassin, Gavrilo Princip, wished to see an end to Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previously arranged allegiances soon brought Germany and Russia into opposition, and before long, this conflict pulled other European countries into the war as well. In 1915, the Germans sank a British passenger ship called the Lusitania, killing many civilians. This event, among others, drew the United States into the conflict as well.
WWI was horrendously destructive. Life in the trenches of Europe was terrifying and deadly, and unsanitary conditions at the front caused frequent disease. But Brooke saw virtually none of this horror; the bloodshed in his poems remained symbolic and redemptive, a "pour[ing] out" of "the red / Sweet wine of youth." His early death gave him a kind of mythic status, bolstered by his handsome looks and patriotic sensibilities.
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More “The Dead (III)” Resources
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External Resources
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The Bugle in World War I — An article detailing the military uses of the bugle in the WWI era.
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A Film on WWI Poetry — Watch a video introduction to the poetry of the First World War, courtesy of the British Library.
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The Poet's Life — Read a biography of Brooke at the Poetry Foundation.
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Poets of WWI — Check out the Poetry Foundation's introduction to World War I poets, including Brooke.
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"The True Story of Rupert Brooke" — An in-depth look at Rupert Brooke's life, via The New Yorker.
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The Rupert Brooke Society — An organization devoted to Brooke's literary legacy.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Rupert Brooke
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