Scarica THE SOLDIER (RUPERT BROOKE) e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! RUPERT BROOKE Rupert Brooke was born in 1887 from a wealthy family and studied in Cambridge . He was really popular in school mainly for his looks. He was also familiar with literary circles such as the Bloomsbury group. He joined at the beginning of the conflict but died because of blood poisoning almost immediately in April of 1915. Brooke’s reputation is connected to 5 sonnets that he wrote in 1914 he was sure of the idea that war was cleansing, for him the only thing that can suffer is the body and death is a reward to recompense his country. His poems show a sentimental attitude towards England. The sonnets were published right after his death turning him into a “young romantic hero”. “THE SOLDIER” This poem follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet (an octave and a sestet). The speaker is a general and anonymous soldier who is addressing his readers. He doesn’t appear afraid of death; on the contrary he feels enthusiastic and delighted to die and glorify his beloved motherland (Great Britain). He realizes that even if he died in a foreign country his dead body would enrich the soil because it’s the body of an English son (lines 3-5). He presents England as a loving and caring mother who offered him life and joy (lines 5-8) through the help of several images of the English landscape, for example “ways to roam”, “flowers to love”, “washed by rivers”, “suns of home”. In these lines he feels deeply grateful for what England had given him. In the second stanza the soldier explains that dying in war is a noble end that leads to the purification of the soul (line 9: “all evil shed away”), immortality (line 10: “a pulse in the eternal mind”) and glory. He also suggests the idea that the duty of every soldier is to pay off the gifts England had given (line 11: “Gives somewhere back the thoughts…”). In the last three lines he celebrates English qualities such as politeness, friendliness, joyfulness. Later on, he affirms that the only way to find peace is death and he also imagines life after his death under an English heaven because he died for his country. The presented global view of war is positive and idealistic. Rupert Brooke believes that death is not a tragic event, but an honorable and heroic end. For him, every soldier should join the conflict and die as a loyal hero devoted to England. The author is extremely patriotic.
