Poem Analysis

I have read a poem and wrote a analysis. I would love to share with you.

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The Soldier   by Rupert Brooke

 The Soldier is a poem about the patriotism one soldier of England has about his country. This poem shows loyalty and the pride of ones country very well. When the poem says ‘If I should die, think only this of me:’ it doesn’t actually mean think just about me. It means he won’t blame the war or England if he died in the war. He will think of pride and be thankful to England. And when the poet says ‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England’. It doesn’t mean the phrase itself as if that little part of the land belongs to England. Since this soldier has a probability of dying in foreign land, he will be buried somewhere in the foreign land. He won’t think this little part as a foreign land. He will think this as a part of England. The other phrase where the poem says ‘There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed’ is explaining more in details about the first phrase. So the soldier is basically explaining that when he gets buried in a foreign land, the part of land where he will be buried will be forever England and will have rich soil and rich dust because England taught him wonderful things that made him wise and skillful.

 The poem explains a lot about how the soldier has grown in England when he was a child. ‘Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam’ all these things were what England gave to this soldier when he was young. The beautiful, innocent flowers to look and enjoy, ways to walk and wonder. ‘A body of England’s, breathing English air, washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’ This shows the reader the sight of England with fresh rivers and bright sun with fresh air.

 When people die, some people think that all the evil deeds they did will vanish. When the poem says ‘And think, this heart, all evil shed away, a pulse in the eternal mind’ is a phrase where the poem wants to tell us how the soldier’s heart will become. When he dies, his heart will become pure and eternal. And he says when he dies he will not just hide the thought England made him have. He will give it back somewhere where it will be useful. When the soldier says ‘Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; and laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, in hearts at peace, under an English heaven.’ he is trying to show us how happy England is and how heaven like it is. The soldier wants to tell the readers that England is always gentle and mother-like who cares about everyone in the country. He is trying to thank England for all these things before he go to war. 

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It is a very beautiful poem. I loved it.