It's been a long day for me :-( I glanced at the headline and thought, "Rupert's broke 100 years after his death? Heck, 100 years after my death I'll probably be broke too, at least in terms of earthly wealth." Then I looked again...
International day of the book! Great day to read his work.
WWI was a poets war, produced quite a few.
One of the 27 club.
Or as Radar called him, “Ruptured Brooke.”
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever 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.
Rupert Brooke
Now, God be thanked who has matched us with his hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping!
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary;
Leave the sick hearts that honor could not move
I wonder, would he still feel the same had he lived to see Gallipoli, the Somme, Verdun and Passchendaele....not to mention the Versailles treaty and the rise of Hitler.