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Poetry is a way of expression. People of all ages, backgrounds, and time periods connect by using poetry as a way to voice their opinions. During World War One, a time of trench warfare and harsh conditions, many soldiers used poetry to release their fears and talk about their opinions. Rupert Brooke was a poet from World War One, and his views on the war were very different from the views of most soldiers. Rupert’s service in England’s navy didn’t last long, he had only experience combat once, and he contracted a blood disease shortly after that. Although he saw little of the war, he is still considered a war poet. While some people see his poetry as patriotic, others believe that Rupert’s poetry is too idealistic. Rupert’s poems “Dead” and “The Soldier” are prime examples of his views on the war; both of the poems explain that Rupert believes that soldiers should feel proud to die for their country, and that dying in war is not dying in vain.

Rupert Brooke’s poem “Dead” explains Rupert’s view on the pride of dying for one’s country in his use of form, tone, imagery, symbolism, rhyme scheme, and personification. The title, “Dead”, sets the tone for the narrator, gloomy and upsetting, but since the poem is a sonnet, it holds a slightly romantic mood. Brooke quickly covers his view on fallen soldiers in his first line: “Blow out, you bugles; over the rich Dead!” (1) where he uses the word “rich” to express how he thinks dying in the war is honorable. The alliteration in the first line focuses on the hard “b” and it can be used to symbolize the loud bangs of a gun. He talks of death as if it makes a person an asset or a “rarer [gift] than gold” (Brooke 3). Like the words “rarer” and “gold” in line three, Rupert uses more words wi...

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...ith positive connotations like “happy” (Brooke 12) and “peace” (Brooke 13) to show that he believes his life after death will be filled with joy and happiness. He once again talks of England as if it was a mother, and using the happiness he associates with her to convey his perfect heaven.

In both of Rupert’s poems he focuses on the glory of a righteous death by using form, tone, imagery, rhyme scheme, and personification. But, the two have one main difference, audience. In “Dead” the narrator, a soldier, is talking to other soldiers and telling them that the nobility of their deaths make their lives immortal. In “The Soldier” the narrator, a soldier, is talking to mourners and reassuring them, and himself, of his death for his country. Overall, the two poems convey a similar message: that Rupert Brooke believes that a death in battle is a death to take pride in.