"The Soldier" is a poem written by

Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...

. The poem is the fifth in a series of poems entitled ''1914''. It was published in 1915 in the book ''1914 and Other Poems''. It is often contrasted with

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by ...

's 1917

antiwar An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

poem "

Dulce et Decorum est "Dulce et Decorum est" is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I, and published posthumously in 1920. The Latin title is taken from Ode 3.2 (''Valor'') of the Roman poet Horace and means "it is sweet and fitting". It is followed by ...

". The manuscript is located at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

Structure of the poem

Written with fourteen lines in a

Petrarchan The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Developm ...

/Italian sonnet form, the poem is divided into an opening octet, and then followed by a concluding sestet. As far as

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB r ...

, the octet is rhymed after the Shakespearean/Elizabethan (ABAB CDCD) form, while the sestet follows the Petrarchan/Italian (EFG EFG) form. The volta, the shift or point of dramatic change, occurs after the fourth line where Brooke goes from describing the death of the soldier, to his life accomplishments winning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, as part of a series of

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

s written by Rupert Brooke. Brooke himself, predominantly a prewar poet, died the year before "The Soldier" was published. "The Soldier", being the conclusion and the finale to Brooke’s ''1914'' war sonnet series, deals with the death and accomplishments of a soldier. This sonnet encompasses the memoirs of a deceased soldier who declares his patriotism to his homeland by declaring that his sacrifice will be the eternal ownership of England of the small portion of land where his body is buried. The poem appears to not follow the normal purpose of a Petrarchan/Italian sonnet either. It does not truly go into detail about a predicament/resolution, as is customary with this form; rather, the atmosphere remains constantly in the blissful state of the English soldier.

Cultural influence

The poem is read aloud twice in the 1969 film, ''

Oh! What a Lovely War ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' is a 1969 British comedy musical war film directed by Richard Attenborough (in his directorial debut), with an ensemble cast, including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Oli ...

''. The first time, the poem is read in its entirety by a soldier writing it in the trenches. The second time, a different soldier reads from a paper that 70% casualties occurred at the last battle, and recites the beginning lines, "That there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England." Lyrics in

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-so ...

' “ The Gunner's Dream” (from the

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

album '' The Final Cut'') make reference to “The Soldier”. Implicit references to this poem (and several others) are made in Muse's song “ Soldier's Poem” from their album '' Black Holes & Revelations''. Prior to the first moon landing in 1969,

William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He w ...

prepared a speech for

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

to give in case of disaster. The last line of the prepared address intentionally echoes a similar line from the poem. ("For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.") This line is in reference to the first few lines of the poem. The Second World War fiction novel ''Under an English Heaven'', by Robert Radcliffe, tells the story of a

Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

bomber crew in the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

520th Bombardment Group, based on a

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

airbase. The novel takes its title directly from this piece, and although not mentioning the poem directly, comparisons are drawn between "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and particular bombing missions over occupied Europe which elicited a very high casualty rate, underlining the futility of the survival odds for any given bomber crew. English singer songwriter Al Stewart makes reference to Brooke in his song "Somewhere in England (1915)" from the album '' A Beach Full of Shells'': “And the maker of rhymes on the deck who is going to die, in the corner of some foreign field that will make him so famous, as the light temporarily shines to illumine his pages.” The same line was used in the song The Gunner's Dream by

. The poem is used as the theme for ''The Listener'' Crossword 4343, "Bear, Bear Bearing". The title hints at "Rupert Brook-e", and features from the poem are hidden in the grid. In the ''

Blackadder Goes Forth ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' is the fourth series of the BBC sitcom ''Blackadder'', written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC1. The series placed the recurring characters of Blackadder, Bald ...

'' episode " Major Star", Captain Blackadder says "If I should die, think only this of me, I'll be back to get you." In the film ''

All the King's Men ''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U.S ...

'' the poem is twice quoted verbatim: once early in the story as the inexperienced soldiers boast of coming glorious death in battle and again near the end at the funeral of a soldier killed in Gallipoli. The contrast in these two recitations (in tone, character, setting, purpose) illustrates the nuance of the poem beyond any patriotism/anti-war dichotomy.

References

External links

*Poem text: https://www.poemist.com/rupert-brooke/1914-v-the-soldier * 1914, and Other Poems (1915) at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* (multiple versions) {{DEFAULTSORT:Soldier, The World War I poems 1914 poems