1. Lyrics
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.
2. Summary and analysis
‘The soldier’ is a poem where a soldier expresses his love for his homeland, England. It is about how he is willing to fight for it, and eventually, die for it. But his death would not be mournful, since he wherever he dies will become part of England, and he will return to a form of England after his death.
- Title: ‘The soldier’.
This line is a metonymy; it describes one soldier but means all (English) soldiers.
- Line 1-3: “If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.”
If the speaker dies, he only wants people to think one thing: that a corner of a foreign field is now England. What he means by that, is that if he dies in a battle and he is buried in a field, that piece of ground is now English, because he is English and his body or bones lay there. Therefore, people should not grieve about his death, since he left behind a piece of England. Alliteration is used in ‘foreign field’. ‘A corner of a foreign field’ is an euphemism because truly, this is a graveyard or a body-strewn trench, as well as assonance because of the ‘corner’ and ‘foreign’.
- Line 3-4: “ […] There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;”
The speaker further describes where he will be buried. If he dies, his body will be buried in the ground, and therefore making the soil ‘richer’. These lines make use of enjambment. Dust is a homonymy here, since it is both the soldier’s ashes and the soil, as well as a metaphor, and a religious symbol since the term is based on ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’. ‘Rich’ is a repetition here.
- Line 5: “A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,”
This dust refers to the ashes of the soldier again. The narrator talks about how England made the soldier the man he was; England gave him life and raised him. Line 5 makes it clear that the narrator thinks of England as a motherly, or godlike figure. This line also makes use of a personification, since it gives England human-like qualities. It is an enumeration, as well as assonance because of ‘shaped’ and ‘made’. ‘Dust’ is also a repetition because of how often it is repeated.
- Line 6-8: “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.”
The narrator elaborates about him being English again, saying that his body is English, or property of England, and breathes English air. He also describes the beautiful English nature; the flowers, the rivers and the sunshine. This is also a personification, since it assigns human-like qualities to the sun and rivers. Lyrical, hyperbolic, plural suns. It is an enumeration. Because of how often ‘England’ and ‘English’ is mentioned, this is also a repetition.
- Line 9: “And think, this heart, all evil shed away,”
The reader is asked to imagine the soul of the soldier after he passed away. All the evil or sins are cast off, since the soldier is now with God.
- Line 10-11: “A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;”
When the soldier passes away, he will become part of the never-ending, eternal being that is heaven. He will perhaps re-experience things he knew about England, therefore giving the experiences back to England. He also wants others to think of him as still being alive, because the pulse symbolizes his heartbeat.
- Line 12-13: “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends;”
The narrator talks about all the great things the soldier has experienced in England and will continue to experience in heaven. There are multiple instances of alliteration used here: ‘sights’ and ‘sounds’, ‘happy’ and ‘her’, ‘laughter’ and ‘learnt’, to show happiness.
- Line 13-14: “[…] and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heav”
After arriving in heaven, the soldier is at peace; he is in English heaven. This can mean that because of his past experiences, the heaven he goes to looks and feels like England. But it can also mean that England is the place that comes the closest to heaven on earth.
3. Structure
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