The Soldier

Of the many poems written by enlisted men during World War I (WWI), “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke stands out especially because Brooke saw almost no combat. WWI broke out in the summer of 1914. That fall, Brooke began work on a series of “War Sonnets” and “The Soldier” is a part of this series. Brooke died the following year, on his way to Gallipoli, from sepsis. 1914 and Other Poems was published in 1915 after Brooke’s death.

“The Soldier” was originally titled “The Recruit,” and some would argue “The Recruit” is a more fitting title, because Brooke hadn’t seen any frontline combat when he wrote this sonnet. In fact, Brooke never saw any frontline combat. Although Brooke was deployed to help with the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, he died on a hospital ship of sepsis, or blood-poisoning, before he ever got to the front mentioned in his poem. Many scholars believe Brooke would not have published this poem had he seen what modern warfare was really like. As a result, scholars and critics often classify “The Soldier” as a pre-war poem; although it was technically written shortly after WWI began, its author never witnessed the chaos, suffering, and mass death that characterized that war and has come to characterize modern warfare ever since.