The Soldier // Rupert Brooke // Rainbow Part- Poetry Chapter- 6

                                                  The Soldier

                           -Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke’s Biography

1.       Rupert Brooke was born in 1887.

2.       He was a war poet.

3.       His father was a housemaster at Rugby School, where Rupert was educated before going to King’s College, Cambridge.

4.       He was described as ‘the handsomest young man in England’ by W.B. Yeats.

5.       He died of septicaemia on April 23, 1915, of the island of Lemnos in the Aegean on his way to a battle at Gavipoli.

THE SOLDIER EXPLANATION

STANZA-1

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.

STANZA-2

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 SUMMARY

The soldier is a patriotic poem in form of sonnet composed by the great war poet Rupert Brooke. The poet describes the feeling of an English Soldier who goes to a foreign country to fight for his own country. He feels that the piece of foreign land where he will be buried in case of death, will be forever England. He considers the piece of foreign land to be England because he was born and brought up in England. He also expresses his sense of gratitude of his country for everything he got there the flowers, the air he breathes, the laughter that he has learnt from friends. Thus the poem shows the poet’s great love for his mother land.

THE SOLDIER OBJECTIVE QUESTION

1.   1.       According to the ‘The Soldier’ England has given her natives her flowers to ___________.

a) smell
b)worship
c)love
d)buy

2.       In that rich earth a richer dust ___________.
a)exposed
b)concealed
c)shaped
d)none

3.       The word sonnet comes from the Italian word “Sonetto” which means ___________ poem
a)small
b)large
c)big
d)ballad

4.       The writers of sonnet are called ___________.
a)poets
c)writer
c)sonnetors
d)sonnetiars

5.       Sonnet was invented by the Italian poet ___________.
a)Rupert Brooke
b)William Shakespeare
c)Thomas Keats
d) Giacomo da Lentini

6.       Sonnet is generally divided into ___________ parts.
a) one
b) two
c)three
d) four

7.       The first ___________ lines are called octave.
a)6
b)7 
c)8
d)10

8.       The last ___________ are called sestet.
a)6
b)7
c)8
d)10    

9.       The Soldier’ is written by ___________.
a)John Donne
b)John Keats
c)Rupert Brooke
d)Walt Whitman

10.     The speaker of the poem ‘the soldier’ is a ___________.
a)soldier
b)thief
c)plumber
d) teacher

11.    A poem consisting of ___________ lines is a sonnet.
a)12
b)16
c)14
d)18

12.    The Soldier is a ___________ poem.
a)hate
b)war
c)sad
d)love

13.    The images and praises of ___________ run through both the stanzas.
a)Brazil
b)England
c)Finland
d) India

14.    Rupert Brooke speaks in the guise of an ___________ soldier.
a)English
b)Dutch
c)Indian
d)American

15.    ___________ is inevitable.
a)death
b)life
c)punishment
d)None

16.    The speaker is not afraid of ___________.
a)tiger
b)storm
c)death
d)life

17.    The dust stands for the ___________.
a)soldier
b)sweeper
c)carpenter
d)teacher

18.    The place where the soldier would be buried should be treated as the part of ___________ after his death.
a)England
b)Holland
c)Portugal
d)Ireland

19.    Rupert Brooke was born in ___________.
a)1887
b)1880                          
c)1860
d)1895

20.    Rupert Brooke died in ___________.
a)1915
b)1920
c)1930
d)1970

21.    Rupert Brooke was described ‘the handsomest young man in England’ by whom ___________.
a)John Keats
b)WB Yeats
c)Shakespeare
d)Johan

22.    Rupert Brooke died because of ___________.
a)septicaemia
b)Cancer
c)TB
d)none

23.    Rupert Brooke was ___________ poet.
a)War
b)Sad
c)metaphysical
d)people’s

24.    The Soldier is ___________.
a)song
b)sonnet
c)ode
d)ballad

25.    The Soldier is ___________ poem.
a)a symbolic
b)a lyrical
c)a patriotic
d)free verse

26.    ‘Idealistic Patriotism’ is the essence of ___________.
a)If
b)The Soldier
c)Echo
d)An Epitaph

27.    How many times the poet uses ‘England’ in the poem ‘The Soldier’?
a)6
b)4 
c)2
d)10

28.    ‘The Soldier’ was written and published during what major war?
a)World War-I
b)World World-II
c)Spanish-America War
d)Civil war

29.    The word ‘eternal’ means ___________.
a)forever
b)sometimes
c)at times
d)everytime

30.    The poet Rupert Brooke belonged to ___________.
a)20^th century
b)21th century
 c)19^th century
d)18^th century

31.    Brooke inspired patriotism in the ___________ phase of the First War World.
a)early
b)middle
c)late
d) none

THE SOLDIER QUESTION ANSWER

1.       Is the speaker afraid of death?
Ans. The soldier thinks he will die sooner or later. But he is not afraid of death.

2.       If at all he dies in the battle, how would he like to be remembered?
Ans. He wishes to be remembered as a patriot. He wishes that his grave, wherever it is, is thought to be part of England.

3.       What is meant by the phrase ‘A pulse in the eternal mind’?
Ans. ‘A pulse in the eternal mind’ here means the poet’s heart that willever be beating for England.

4.       ‘In that rich earth a richer dust concealed.’ What does ‘dust’ stand for?
Ans. ‘Dust’ here stands for the body of the poet.

5.       How can ‘some corner of  a foreign field’ be ‘forever England’?
Ans. The poet says that his body is rich dust of England. He was born and bred in England. So wherever his body is buried, it will be England forever.

THE SOLDIER QUESTION ANSWER

“If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field. That is forever England.”
Ans. The poet admires England and expresses his gratitude. He describes about foreign land in which he will be buried after his death and that land will remain a part of England forever.