The Soldier By Brooke

• The poem "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke was written in 1914 around the beginning of the First World War
• Rupert Brooke was a soldier during World War One who died of blood poisoning and was buried in a foreign field in Cyprus
• The poem is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem that describes Brooke's patriotic view that it's glorious and honorable to die for your country, specifically for England
• Brooke romanticizes and praises England for its beauty, bounty, nature, and idealizes war with notions of glory, honor, courage, and bravery
• The poem contrasts with Wilfred Owen's war poetry, showing a more idealistic view of war compared to the horrors of the battlefield depicted by Owen
• The title "The Soldier" suggests a universal soldier experience, not specific to an individual, but to all soldiers
• The poem explores themes of sacrifice, patriotism, and immortality, with England personified as a maternal figure and heaven reflecting English values
• The structure of the poem includes two stanzas: the octave focusing on earthly imagery and the sestet shifting to heavenly themes, symbolizing a transition from the tangible to the intangible