Born in 1887 and died in 1915, Rupert Brooke was an English poet and literary figure who is remembered for his idealistic war sonnets written during World War I. He is best known for his war sonnets, especially ‘The Soldier’, which expresses his belief that death in war is a noble and glorious thing. Written in 1914, the poem celebrates honor and glory in dying for one’s country.
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.