Analysis Of 'The Soldier' By Rupert Brooke

The way that Rosenberg chose to present the war through his poem expresses his dislike for the whole effort. Picturing the fact that a simple rat could be seen as an enemy due to it being on both sides of the war in an obvious hyperbole, but this device is used as a way for Rosenberg to express his beliefs that the war has gone too far. Line 7 states “Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew” (Rosenberg 2030) when referring to how a rat can easily cross between two opposing sides of the war. He expresses how the rat is not a part of the war and a small sense of jealousy towards that rat can be seen through other lines of the poem. As Tomas Staley said when speaking about Rosenberg “as the war became the universe of poetry, the power of

Brooke’s poem The Soldier presents a differing view about the war when compared to Rosenberg’s who thought of the war in a negative light. Brooke actually was all for the war and had a very positive view of it, so that is the way that he chose to represent it in his poem. In lines 13-14, he states “And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness/ In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.” The whole poem is written in a positive tone using happy diction that presents war in a completely different light than how Rosenberg presented it. Brooke thinks of war as something that is wonderful in a way. It lets men fight for the country that they love and represent England, which he views as a great nation. This love of his nation can be from the chances of greatness he was given in life. Good schooling and a chance for a successful career. Everything else in Brooke’s life seemed to be going well and seemed to offer a good turn out, so in Brooke’s mind the war would have this same effect. He had no reason to not the view the war as anything but

Something that Lockerd said was “Far from condemning the war, which he never lived to fight in, his poems actively affirms not only its necessity but its desirability” (Lockerd 4). Though he was not part of the war in the sense of fighting in it, he was completely in support. And, this support can very likely be attributed to Brooke’s pure nationalism. Lines 7-8 of the poem say “A body of England’s, breathing English air/ Washed by rivers, blest by suns of home” (Brooke 2019). This line can be interpreted as meaning that as long as one is with English people in the war, nothing will truly be corrupt or bad. This presents not only a positive outlook on the war, but a positive outlook on the English people. At the beginning of World War I, patriotism was common and even expected. People were all for the war which was reflected in a lot of poetry around the time that The Soldier was written. “In 1914 the British Army… was made up of professionals and then volunteers” (Welch). This was as opposed to the armies of continental Europe whose members had little choice about going to war. And because of the way the armies were made up, Brooke also felt it was right to honor the soldiers that were a part of the army. In lines 9-10, “And, think, this heart, all evil shed away/ A pulse in the Eternal mind, no less” (Brooke 2019). This can be taken to mean that the soldiers who died, no matter who they were or what they did,