The Soldier Themes

The very first thing the speaker of "The Soldier" talks about is his own death. Throughout the first stanza, he talks about himself as "dust," a word that makes us immediately think of funerals, de...

The poem is called "The Soldier," so naturally it's about… war. Unlike many other famous World War I-era poems, however, Brooke paints a more optimistic picture. The soldier's possible death is m...

Six times! That's how many times the word England or English occurs in this poem. (Just go ahead and count 'em. We'll wait right here.) So, you think "The Soldier" is patriotic? You could say so. T...

The speaker of "The Soldier" is very closely linked to the natural world. He returns to the earth when he dies (in the form of dust). And, as a child, he was "washed" and "blest" by the rivers and...