Analisi e significato della poesia "The Soldier" di Rupert Brooke

He wrote this poem at the beginning of the war. There are references to the countryside.

Temi e tono della poesia

The poet is not afraid of death. His dead body will enrich the soil with his dust. There is no emphasis on war in this poem. The poet speaks to English people. He sees England as a beautiful country: the traditional qualities he stresses are dreams, gentleness, politeness, joyfulness. The tone is soft, patriotic and idealistic. The themes are the exaltation of England and the idealization of the mother country and war

Struttura e immagini della poesia

This poem has 2 stanzas and the rhyme scheme is AB AB CD CD – EFG EFG. It is a typical Petrarchan sonnet (an octave and a sestet)

There are images referred to death such as:

- dust (l.5)

- die (l.1)

- eternal mind (l.10)

These images suggest an idealistic vision of the world

landscape:

- flowers (l.6)

- English air (l.7)

- ways to roam (l.6)

- rivers (l.8)

inner growth and private feelings:

- made aware (l.5)

- dreams happy (l.12)

- laughter (l.13)

die – this

foreign – field

body – breathing

by – blest

sight – sound

dreams - day

THE SOLDIER

TESTO

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.

PARAFRASI

Parafrasi della poesia

Se dovessi morire pensa solo questo di me:

Che c'è un angolo di una terra straniera

Che sarà per sempre Inghilterra Ci sarà

In quella ricca terra straniera una polvere nascosta ancora più ricca;

Una polvere che l'Inghilterra genera, che ha plasmato e reso consapevole,

Che diede, una volta, i fiori da amare, le sue vie da percorrere,

Un corpo inglese, respirante aria inglese,

Lavato dai fiumi, benedetto dal sole di casa.

E pensa che, questa cuore, liberatosi dal male,

Una pulsazione in uno spirito eterno, nondimeno,

Da qualche luogo restituisce i pensieri dall'Inghilterra ricevuti;

I suoi panorami e i suoni; i sogni felici come il suo giorno;

E la risata, imparata da amici; e la gentilezza,

In cuori in pace, sotto un cielo inglese.