Remembering our fallen heros.

The Soldier

by Rupert Brooke
(1887-1915)

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.
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Posted in Todays news

10 responses to “We will remember them.”

Sally Jenkins

November 11, 2011

That’s lovely, Susan.
We should be eternally grateful to all those who have given (& are still giving) their lives that we might be free.

Reply
1. susanjanejones
  
  November 11, 2011
  
  Hi Sally,
  Far too many of our best are being lost. Jeremy Vine was talking to Mum’s who’d lost Sons today on Radio 2, playing their favourite songs. So moving.
  
  Reply
Patsy Collins (@PatsyCollins)

November 11, 2011

So sad that wars are still being fought – will we ever learn?

Reply
1. susanjanejones
  
  November 12, 2011
  
  Hi Patsy, It’s heartbreaking to see so many coffins full of our finest young people coming home.
  
  Reply
Hilary

November 12, 2011

Hi Susan .. thanks – lovely poem and I had to look to see if Rupert Brooke died in the war – in fact he died of sepsis from a mosquito bite .. many died in war, many died as an adjunct to it .. but I’m so pleased I scanned a little more about Brooke .. his words evocate so much … as you say: so moving.

Thanks – Hilary

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1. susanjanejones
  
  November 12, 2011
  
  Hi Hilary,
  Yes, the war must have damaged people even if they survived. My Grandad was burned and gassed in WW1. Luckily he survived to have my mum and her two brothers. He wasn’t the same though, he used a puffer for his chest. He built up a plant nursery though, I’m very proud of him.
  
  Reply
Juliet Greenwood

November 12, 2011

I love that poem, Susan. It always reminds me of those rows of crosses in France. Such a waste of young life.

It’s so sad that’s we’re coming up to the hundred year anniversary of the start of the war to end all wars and lives are still being lost.

Juliet

Reply
1. susanjanejones
  
  November 14, 2011
  
  Hi Juliet,
  I love the poem as well, though it’s sad. Wouldn’t it be good if wars ended?
  
  Reply
Debbie

November 13, 2011

Hi Susan, thanks for posting such a lovely poem.

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susanjanejones

November 14, 2011

Hi Debbie,
Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ appeals to me more than those Dulce et decorum est (or similar) that we had to study at school. Rupert’s poems are more gentle than some of the gory ones. Though war isn’t at all gentle is it?

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