Rupert Brooke ” The soldier”

This piece was the last poem that Brooke wrote, after he had a nervous breakdown, recovered, and enlisted in the army. that last part is what shocked me the most, how does someone whom has had a nervous breakdown get admitted into the armed forces. I guess this wouldn’t happen now, but back then they were just taking any healthy able body to fight. In ways it is kind of sad how Brooke died though; can you imagine dying on a ship from blood poisoning. He never even got to see the battle field. How does one contract blood poisoning on a ship? There was one thing for certain, Brooke’s work spoke for itself and he is well known because of that mere fact. In “The Soldier” he write on how people should think of him upon his demise.

“That there’s some corner of a foreign field
This is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed,
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave once, her flowers of love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by the sun of home.” (p1098-1099. lines 2-8)

Here he is stating that he will forever be a part of england, and when he is buried in the ground, the the ground will be richer with his body concealed within it. He speaks of how England gave him life and all it beauties. Oh how much he loved England and the loved the man he became there. He was a better person and he wanted everyone to know that, and for them to open their eyes to its beauty and what it is capable of.