The Soldier

Question 1

Point 1 - Shows a deeply patriotic view point and addresses his loved ones not to morn his passing if he dies

Answer 1

• ‘If I should die’ - tackles the thought of death straight on so that reader doesn’t worry
• ‘Think only this of me’ - commands the reader not to morn but to appreciate England
• ‘Blest by suns of home’ - showing that he appreciates home and that his family should know loved his home
• ‘English heaven’ - shows that he has died and still lives under an English heaven

Question 2

Point 2 - he suggests that dying for his country will immortalise him

Answer 2

• ‘there is some corner of a foreign felid’ - This place in unimportant and isn’t on the same level of importance compared to England
• ‘That is forever England’ - he has immortalised England in other countries
• ‘A pulse in the eternal mind’ - His English soul lives on

Question 3

Point 3 - This ignore any violent language and focuses on the qualities of England

Answer 3

• There is natural imagery ‘flowers’, ‘rivers’ - showing how beautiful England is
• ‘dreams happy as her day’ - showing how England is like a dream to live in
• ‘laughter’, ‘friends’, ‘gentleness’ - these quotes show England’s innocence
• ‘peace’ - suggesting that England is a peaceful country which doesn’t agree with the fact they are at war

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

• Brooke was an English poet whose premature death created his fame and idealised image
• He was caught up in the patriotic views of England at the time
• He was commissioned into the Royal Navy and died of a mosquito bite
• This poem was published in the beginning of the war explaining why it contrasts so strongly to all the poems published afterwards

Question 5

Techniques

Answer 5

England is personified as a mother, detailed descriptions of the English countryside