Speaker and characters

The poem “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke includes only two characters, the speaker or the narrator, and England, which is personified as a female.

The speaker

The poem is constructed using a first-person lyrical speaker, who announces himself from the first line through the use of the personal pronoun I: “If I should die, think only this of me:” (l. 1)

The speaker clearly addresses his poem to a receiver/an audience which, based on the ideas expressed in the poem, maybe the people of England, his family, and acquaintances, society in general.

By correlating the title with the first line, it becomes clear that the speaker is the soldier from the title. Furthermore, the fact that he considers the possibility of death indicates him to be quite realistic, initially. But when he depicts his death in “some corner of a foreign field” (l. 2), the speaker becomes increasingly idealistic. He does not seem to fear death, but considers it a reason for pride, because his death will be an acclamation to Engl...