Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)
1914 V. The Soldier
1If I should die, think only this of me:
2 That there's some corner of a foreign field
3That is for ever England. There shall be
4 In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6 Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
7A body of England's, breathing English air,
8 Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10 A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11 Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
12Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13 And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14 In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Rupert Brooke, "1914" Five Sonnets (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1915). PR 6003 R4N5 1915b Robarts Library. See also Rupert Brooke, 1914 & Other Poems (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1915): 15. PR 6003 R4N5 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
1915
Publication date note: New Numbers (1915)
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1999.
Recent editing: 2:2001/11/15
Composition date:
1914
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcd efgefg
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