"The Soldier" is a poem by Rupert Brooke written during the first year of the First World War (1914). It is a deeply patriotic and idealistic poem that expresses a soldier's love for his homeland—in this case England, which is portrayed as a kind of nurturing paradise. Indeed, such is the soldier's bond with England that he feels his country to be both the origin of his existence and the place to which his consciousness will return when he dies. The poem was a hit with the public at the time, capturing the early enthusiasm for the war (before the grim realities of longterm conflict made themselves known). Nowadays, the poem is seen as somewhat naïve, offering little of the actual experience of war. That said, it undoubtedly captures and distills a particular type of patriotism.
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The Full Text of “The Soldier”
1If I should die, think only this of me:
2 That there’s some corner of a foreign field
3That is for ever England. There shall be
4 In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6 Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
7A body of England’s, breathing English air,
8 Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10 A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11 Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
12Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13 And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14 In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
The Full Text of “The Soldier”
1If I should die, think only this of me:
2 That there’s some corner of a foreign field
3That is for ever England. There shall be
4 In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6 Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
7A body of England’s, breathing English air,
8 Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10 A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11 Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
12Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13 And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14 In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
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“The Soldier” Summary
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“The Soldier” Themes
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War, Patriotism, and Nationhood
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Soldier”
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Lines 1-4
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; -
Lines 5-8
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. -
Lines 9-11
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; -
Lines 12-14
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
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“The Soldier” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Anaphora
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Metaphor
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Personification
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Asyndeton
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Diacope
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“The Soldier” 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.
- Bore
- Made Aware
- Roam
- Blest
- Shed
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Soldier”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Soldier” Speaker
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“The Soldier” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Soldier”
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More “The Soldier” Resources
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External Resources
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Learn More About War Poetry — A series of podcast documentaries from the University of Oxford about various aspects of World War I poetry.
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First World War Poetry — More poems and an insightful essay about WWI from the Poetry Foundation.
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Bringing WWI to Life — In this clip, director Peter Jackson discusses his recent WWI film, They Shall Not Grow Old. Though technology, Jackson brings old war footage to vivid life, restoring a sense of the soldiers as actual people.
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A Reading of "The Soldier" — The poem read by David Barnes for Librivox.
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So Great a Lover: The Life of Rupert Brooke — A BBC documentary exploring the short life and work of Rupert Brooke.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Rupert Brooke
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