Sonnet · Death & Loss

The Soldier

by Rupert Brooke · 1914

Reading room

1If I should die, think only this of me:

2That there's some corner of a foreign field

3That is for ever England. There shall be

4In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

5A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

6Gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

7A body of England's, breathing English air,

8Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

9And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

10A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

11Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

12Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

13And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

14In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

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“The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke — quilloak.com/poems/the-soldier

Quick facts

Poem: The Soldier
Poet: Rupert Brooke
Published: 1914
Length: 14 lines
Form: Sonnet
Themes: Death & Loss, War & Remembrance

Craft notes

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Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

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Text, source & rights

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Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Rupert Brooke1887–1915
Source record: PoetryDBThe Soldier by rupert-brooke, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: 1914
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 01afe376296effd3…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Sonnet Death & Loss War & Remembrance

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