Post WWI Poetry Essay :: English Literature

Post WWI Poetry Essay The poems that I will compare are Rupert Brooke – The Soldier, Seigfried Sassoon – ‘They’, and How Sleep the Brave – William Collins. Rupert Brooke - The Soldier The first few words that Brooke uses are ‘If I should die,’ He uses if as a possibility of death. He uses this because he thinks death is a possibility not a definite answer to war. The forth word he uses connects the Sestet and Octave together because ‘think’ is used in both stanza. At the end of the first line he says ‘me’. This means that he is a ‘patriotic soldier who has done his duty for his country’. ‘That there’s some corner of a foreign field’. This means where every he falls during the war, no matter if it is in a shell hole or on the edge of a river he will be able to die in a piece of England. This shows even more patriotism towards the war and his fellow soldiers. The line ‘in that rich earth a richer dust concealed’, means that the soldier’s ashes are held in the earth. They have been called ‘richer dust’ because the ashes of the people are the ashes of people who have dies for their country and their fellow countrymen. This also means that his body fertilizes the patriotism and honour of England’s people. ‘A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware’, means that the man who died was raised by England and educated. This personifies England as a mother nurturing a small child. The soldier’s body is said to be owned by England in the line, ‘A body of England’s’. In the poem the word ‘blest’ is used some this may have some religious significance. The lines 5 – 8 are describing the soldiers ‘Englishness’. It is patriotism at its most extreme. In the second stanza, the word ‘think’ arises again, joining the sestet and octave. ‘All evil shed away’, means that the person who has sacrificed their body for their country cannot sin any more because they are dead. This may also mean that they may have been forgiven for killing the enemy to protect their country and its rights of freedom. ‘A pulse in the eternal mind’ has a spiritual or religious meaning. It could mean that all of the people, who knew him in the war and his family, still remember him and will do forever. ‘Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given’, continues the patriotism and emphasizes his sacrifice for England. The last three lines describe the ‘Good of England’. The last line ‘In hearts at peace, under an