the wilde wood - lyrics

The Soldier

written by Rupert Brooke (©Year Name of Copyright Holder)

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.