Biography
From the years of 1887 to 1915 lived one of the most memorable war poets of the 20th century. Rupert Brooke was raised in an upper class family, and he was educated at Rugby School where his father was the housemaster and later at King's College in Cambridge. He was remembered as the bright student/athlete who was quickly accepted amongst the most prominent literary circles including Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, and Edward Thomas. Brooke soon gained a literary reputation despite his youth and naivete.
Brooke was required to fight in World War I, but he did not fight much. In April of 1915, he contracted some kind of blood poisoning from neglecting a wound and died shortly after. Because of Brooke's short life and his already admired works, he quickly acquired the reputation as "A young Apollo, golden-haired," and W.B. Yeats believed he was "the most handsome man in England." Some believe that Brooke's influence upon the poetic styles of war poetry was overrated, but most note that he should be admired for his efforts and sentimental interpretations. Brooke's literary role was commented on by Jon Stallworthy in the following passage:
The thoughts to which he gave expression in the very few incomparable war sonnets which he has left behind will be shared by many thousands of young men moving resolutely and blithely forward into this, the hardest, cruelest, and the least-rewarded of all the wars that men have fought. They are a whole history and revelation of Rupert Brooke himself. Joyous, fearless, versatile, deeply instructed, with classic symmetry of mind and body, he was all that one would with England's noblest sons to be in days when no sacrifice but the most previous is acceptable, and the most precious is that which is most freely proffered.
Brooke did inspire war patriotism throughout the course of World War I from his War Sonnets that include "Peace," "Safety," "The Dead," and "The Soldier." The following Sonnet, "The Soldier" is a prime example of Brooke's understanding and personal outlook on the deserved sympathies for the soldiers of World War I.
The Soldier
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.
The previous sonnet by Brooke expresses his feelings on death and the afterlife. Brooke shows genuine optimism about his perception of the afterlife, and he believes that there is a place where pain and suffering is void. Throughout "The Soldier" sonnet, Brooke tells of this imaginary place that is much like England but better in respects to possessing the power of a dreamier environment where evil is forgotten. Memories are restored of laughter and old acquaintances where everyone is at peace, and dreams are lived out. This place that Brooke describes is a mixture of England at its best and his interpretation of heaven.
Brooke is not only responsible for war poems, he is recognized for his contributions regarding other poetic topics from love to bravery to aspects of mythology. Some other poems written by Brooke are:
The Fish
A Channel Passage
Helen and Menelaus
Heaven
The Great Lover
Sources
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Brooke.html
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Passage.html
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Fish.html
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Heaven.html
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Menelaus.html
http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Sonnets.html
http://www.coe.uncc.edu/~rosharma/poems/brooke.txt
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