Rupert Brooke - His rise to fame as a war poet.

Rupert Brooke's rise to fame as a war poet

Rupert Brooke shot to fame following his tragic death early in the First World War. He had already begun to make a name for himself as the most prominent member of a group of young poets who called themselves the Georgians. He was the founding spirit and the natural publicist of the group. He was also an important contributor to a poetry magazine called New Numbers.

It was for this that he had written a group of war sonnets which, together, were known as 1914. He wrote them in December 1914 and finalised them in the first days of January 1915.

The Times Literary Supplement of March 11, 1915, wrote of the war sonnets, "It is impossible to shred up this beauty for the purpose of criticism. These sonnets are personal - never were sonnets more personal since Sidney died - and yet the very blood and youth of England seem to find expression in them. They speak not for one heart only, but for all to whom her call has come in the hour of need and found instantly ready . . . No passion for glory is here, no bitterness, no gloom, only a happy, clear-sighted, all surrendering love."

In his sermon in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Easter Sunday 1915, Dean Inge had praised Brooke's sonnet, The Soldier. "The enthusiasm of a pure and elevated patriotism has never found a nobler expression," he said.

When news of Brooke's death, on the Greek island of Skyros, reached London Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote an obituary for Brooke in The Times. He described Brooke's sonnets as "incomparable" and said they were written with "genius". And Brooke himself he described as "Joyous, fearless, versatile, deeply instructed . . . ruled by high undoubting purpose . . . and all that one could wish England's noblest sons to be . . ."

The sonnets were reprinted in a collection of Brooke's poetry called 1914 and Other Poems which first appeared in May 1915. The book's popularity was immense. It was reprinted on average, every eight weeks throughout the war.

RUPERT BROOKE INDEX

Rupert Brooke - An Introduction

Rupert Brooke - Reaction to war

Rupert Brooke's war sonnet Peace (with notes)

Brief life of Rupert Brooke (from Minds at War)

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