The Soldier - Critical Response
Uploaded by Madbhoy on Aug 25, 2001
A poem which I have read recently is “Soldier” by Rupert Brooke. The main point in question throughout this poem is appreciation for ones country. I will prove that this is the main point in question during the course of my essay.
The poem “Soldier” is Brooke’s views on the possible occurrence of his own death in the field and what he feels that foreign country would gain from his death. When viewing his own death Brooke only looks at the thoughts and ways England has provided him with in the course of his life. Towards the end of the poem as if looking at the end of his life he mentions that he feels no anger or feelings of evil or hate toward the enemy or anything else but instead recollects all the wonderful things about his country.
Three poetical techniques used in this poem were metaphor, simile and image groups, two of which I will explore. Firstly I’m going to look at image groups. There are several noticeable image groups in this poem one of which is “ Death & Mortality”. As the idea of the whole poem is based around this topic it was used regularly. The first obvious use of this image group was in the very first line of stanza one: “If I should die, think only this of me”. This sets the scene for the topic of discussion in the poem, the word die has many connotations as it is such a dark and vile word often associated with sadness. This leaves the reader with a feeling of seriousness, this is very important as the reader is captivated within the very first sentence of the poem. After the above quote was used the poet moves away from the initial seriousness and looks more deeply at his own mortality. The next significant mention on this subject is in line two of the second stanza were the sentence: “A pulse in the eternal mind ”. This shows that mortality is indeed an important issue, this however has greater connotations as it shows that he feels he has left an impression on the world which he later puts down to being English.
The next poetic term is simile. The main point in the poem is again shown as the poet discusses all he has benefited from being English and says: “ dreams happy as her day” on line four of...