The Soldier
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.
"The Soldier" is a poem by Rupert Brooke written during the first year of the First World War (1914). It is a deeply patriotic and idealistic poem that expresses a soldier's love for his homeland—in this case England, which is portrayed as a kind of nurturing paradise. Indeed, such is the soldier's bond with England that he feels his country to be both the origin of his existence and the place to which his consciousness will return when he dies. The poem was a hit with the public at the time, capturing the early enthusiasm for the war (before the grim realities of longterm conflict made themselves known). Nowadays, the poem is seen as somewhat naïve, offering little of the actual experience of war. That said, it undoubtedly captures and distills a particular type of patriotism.
Summary
If I die in the war, I want to be remembered in a particular way. Think of how the far-off land on which I die will have a small piece of England forever. That earth will be enriched by my dead body, because my body is made from dirt born in England. England created me and gave me consciousness, gave me her blooming plants to fall in love with, and gave me my sense of freedom. My body belongs to England, has always breathed English air. England's rivers cleansed me, and I was blessed by England's sun.
Also consider the way in which my soul, through death, will be made pure. My consciousness will return to the immortal consciousness like a beating pulse, and return the beautiful thoughts that England gave me. I'll return the sights and sounds of my home country; to the beautiful dreams that were as happy as England's daytime; and to the laughter shared with English friends. And I'll return England's gentleness, which lives in the English minds that are at peace under the English sky (the English heaven where I will be at peace too when I die).
Themes
War, Patriotism, and Nationhood
“The Soldier” explores the bond between a patriotic British soldier and his homeland. Through this soldier’s passionate discussion of his relationship to England, the poem implies that people are formed by their home environment and culture, and that their country is something worth defending with their life. Indeed, the soldier sees himself as owing his own identity and happiness to England—and accordingly is willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good of his nation. This is, then, a deeply patriotic poem, implicitly arguing that nations have their own specific character and values—and that England’s are especially worthy of praise.
Though most people might fear death—particularly of the violent kind that war can bring—the speaker of “The Soldier” is prepared to die because he believes hew would be doing it for his beloved homeland. The speaker thus doesn’t want people to grieve his death. He sees that potential death—in some “foreign field” (notably “foreign” because it won’t be in England)—as a way of making a small piece of the world “for ever England.” That’s because he sees himself as an embodiment of his nation. Accordingly, dying somewhere “foreign” leaves a small part of the home nation in that foreign land. Nationhood, then, is portrayed as something that is inseparable from a person’s identity—even when they die.
Indeed, the speaker feels he owes his identity itself primarily to his country. It was the personified England that “bore” and “shaped” him, nourished him with sun (ironic, given the often gloomy weather!) and air, and cleansed him with “water.” Much of the sonnet’s octave—the eight-line stanza—is devoted to creating a sense of England as a pastoral, idyllic, and even Eden-like place. The poem’s imagery of rivers, flowers, earth, air, and sun, is part of an attempt to transform nationhood from a human concept to something more fundamental and natural (all the while tied to England specifically), as though the land is infused with the character of its people and vice versa.
In fact, this nationhood is so deeply embedded in who people are—or so the poem argues—that it extends beyond the earthly realm. Even the heaven that the speaker hopes to go to is specifically an “English heaven.” In part, that’s because the speaker’s idea of heaven is a projection of how he sees England—apart from being a kind of natural and nurturing mother, England is already a kind of heaven. Indeed, the poem presents England and heaven as almost interchangeable—as described above, everything about England is supposedly pure and nourishing. The speaker’s consciousness, after he dies, will return to an “eternal mind” which will still be forever linked to the place that created it.
There is nothing in the poem, then, of the horrors of war. Indeed, there is very little of the realities of war at all. This perhaps explains why the poem has inspired strong reactions ever since its publication. It was immensely popular when it was published in 1914, but this was before the true horrors of the First World War had been fully revealed, a time when the war was still tinged with an air of excitement, anticipation, and, of course, patriotism. In the decades that followed, some critics saw Brooke’s poetry as woefully naïve and sentimental. Either way, the poem is a powerful expression of patriotic desire and belief in the bond between people and their homeland.
병사
내가 죽으면 나에 대해 이것만 생각해 주오,
영원히 영국땅이 된 외국 들판의
어떤 지역이 있다는 것을. 그 풍요로운 땅에
보다 풍요로운 티끌이 묻히리라는 것을,
영국땅이 낳고, 기르고, 깨닫게 했으며, 한 번은,
사랑할 꽃과 헤맬 길을 주었던 티끌이,
영국의 공기를 숨쉬고, 고향의 강물에 씻겨지고,
고향의 햇빛에 축복받은 영국땅의 몸이.
그리고 생각해주시오, 모든 악을 벗어버린 이 심장,
영원한 정신 속의 맥박이, 영국땅이 준 생각,
광경, 소리를 어딘가에서 여전히 돌려주고 있음을,
거기에 살 때처럼 행복한 꿈과, 친구에게 배운 웃음을,
그리고 평화로운 마음 속의 정다움을,
하나의 영국 하늘 아래서 돌려주고 있음을.
루퍼트 쇼너 브룩 (Rupert Chawner Brooke, 1887년 8월 3일 ~ 1915년 4월 23일)은 영국의 시인이며 군인이었다.
루퍼트 브룩은 잉글랜드 워릭셔 럭비 출생으로 럭비학교·케임브리지대학교를 졸업하였다.
럭비교 시절부터 시재(詩才)를 인정받고, 1911년 처녀시집을 간행하였다.
1913∼1914년 미국 하와이·타히티섬·오스트레일리아 등지를 여행하며 많은 시를 썼다.
제1차 세계대전에 참전하였다가 그리스 스카이로스 섬 앞바다 병원선에서 패혈증으로 병사하였다.
소네트집 <1914년>(1915), 평론집 <존 웹스터와 엘리자베스조 연극 John Webster and the Elizabethan Drama>(1916) 및 H. 제임스의 서문을 붙인 <미국으로부터의 편지 Letters from America>(1916)를 남겼다.
예이츠가 '유럽 전체에서 가장 잘 생긴 남자'라고 했던, 브룩의 1914년 시, '병사(The Soldier)'는 그의 아름다운 외관 뒤에 자리한 강건한 영국 청년의 모습을 읽게 한다.
If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. 내 죽으면, 이것만 기억해 주오. 낯선 땅 어느 구석인가 영원히 영국이 있노라고.
낭만적, 애국적 감정을 보여주는 이 소네트는 abab cdcd efgefg의 각운 형식을 취하며 약강 5보격으로 되어 있다. 간결한 형식으로, 전쟁터에 나가는 한 병사의 죽음에 대한 낭만적 생각이 묘사되어 있다. 전쟁의 처절함이나 비참함 등은 전혀 보이지 않고 전쟁에 나가 죽으면 이국땅이 영국땅이 된다는 낭만적 생각을 하는 병사가 죽음을 두려워하지 않고 자신의 심정을 담담하게 말한다.
첫머리에서 화자는 자신의 죽음을 예견하고 있다. 그는 "만일 자신이 죽으면"이라고 말하여 죽지 않으리라는 것을 확신하고 잇는 듯이 보이기도 하지만, 그 뒤의 내용의 흐름으로 보아 자신이 죽게 되리라는 것을 기꺼이 인정하는 태도를 보이고 있다. 자신의 죽음을 예감하고 있는 화자는 자신이 죽으면 외국 어느 한 장소에 묻히게 될 것이고 그러면 그 장소는 영원히 영국이 된다고 말하고 있다. 자신이 지금 조국을 위하여 싸움을 하러 나가는 길이므로, 자신이 죽어서도 조국에 보탬이 되고자 하는 지극히 애국적인 생각이 엿보인다.
그 땅에는 보다 더 풍요로운 티끌인 자신의 시체가 묻힐 것이다. 여기서 "티끌"이라는 말은 창세기에 기록된 인간이 흙에서 나왔다는 사실과는 관계가 없고, 인간은 단지 흙에서 나와다시 흙으로 돌아가는 것이니 인간의 육체가 티끌과 같은 것이라는 의미가 강하다. 그 티끌은 영국이 낳고 기른 것으로 영국의 것에 의하여 지금과 같은 모습으로 성장했다. 그러므로 그것은 영국의 육체인 것이다. 비록 지금 이국의 낯선 땅에 묻히게 되지만 지금까지 영국의 것에 의하여 형성되었으니 영국 국토의 일부가 떨어져 나가는 것과 마찬가지이다.