Poetry of War "The Soldier"

Question

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

a. What is the speaker's general attitude toward his situation?

b. Explain why he might have this attitude.

What type of poem is "The Soldier"?

a. an ode

b. a lyric poem

c. a sonnet

d. an epic

What are the physical things of England that the speaker mentions as being special to him?

To what does the phrase "a richer dust" buried in the foreign soil refer?

A theme is an insight or life lesson found in a piece of literature. Almost all literature has a unifying theme or statement of the speaker's beliefs. What is the theme of this poem?

Answer 1

The questions you have to answer are not particularly difficult, and the poem is not difficult either. My advice: read the poem carefully, concentrate on the meaning (use a dictionary if necessary). Once you really understand it, you will be able to answer the questions. For the type of poem, look up these words in a dictionary.

This may help you:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels...