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Rupert 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 the 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.

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Read by Ruth Golding · Source: Librivox.org

About the poet

Rupert BrookeRupert Brooke
1887-1915

 
By the same poet
Peace
Safety
The Dead
The Dead
The Old Vicarage, Grantchester
The Hill
Dining-Room Tea
Heaven
The Great Lover
 
Related books
Rupert Brooke at amazon.co.uk