Rupert Brooke, The Soldier

Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Feb 1915

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

“The Soldier” is the fifth and final sonnet in Rupert Brooke’s sequence entitled “1914” (published 1915), which responds to the advent of the First World War, its author having enlisted for active service with the Royal Naval Division in September 1914. It quickly became his most famous poem, and helped to elevate him, after his death on 23 April 1915, into a sort of national hero. Its reputation has suffered in the light of the later and more realistic war poems of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and others, but it memorably captures an English patriotic mood belonging to an early phase of the conflict very different from the trench-war stalemate of 1916-18.

If I should die, think only this of me:
…

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1801 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "The Soldier". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 January 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35549, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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