:Response to War and Peace

The Soldier

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.

This poem by Rupert Brooke really meant something to me. I believe that being a soldier is an honor and I believe if you are a soldier there is no reason to disgrace that. When you are a soldier your defending your country and other countries in need of help. Wilfred Owens poem I believe is one of the most negative poems I have ever read, it is the reality of war, but he seems to be way to negative. I believe Brooke understood why he  fought and why he was at war. War is ugly and always will be but its how you approach it. This will always be an issue. My father is retired from the army, and when I read this poem I think of him. He used to tell me there is nothing more honorable than a U.S. Soldier. I look at what the United States of America has given me, and then I look at other places in the world, and I believe everyone should serve their country in some way. That doesn’t mean fighting, not everyone is made to fight. But it some way service should be paid. This is my opinion, my beliefs, my life on which I was raised.

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