Poem A
Peace by Rupert Brooke
the first of his sonnets in the 1914 sequence
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us1 with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!2
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release3 there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save4 this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
1 matched us - made us suitable to take part in these thrilling timesWhere there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save4 this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
2 emptiness of love - Brooke was disillusioned with love. He had a stormy relationship with Katherine Cox which led to a nervous breakdown. Other relationships with young women were never lastingly satisfactory.
3 release - relief, a sense of freedom
4 save - except
All of Brooke's war sonnets appear in both Out in the Dark and Minds at War. Only Out in the Dark has basic notes.
This poem is structured as a Sonnet using religious imagery and describes turning away from the old to the new, like a religious conversion, and a kind-of rebirth as a soldier. Symbolism is also a literary device that is seen in the poem. There is symbolic language which describes the youths as chosen by god who has "matched us with his hour", in other words, has made them suitable to take part in the war which thus assumes the nature of a crusade. God has given them bodily strength.
ReplyDeleteThe poem also contains the literary device of Simile. The simile of swimmers diving into clear water can also be an image of baptism which washes away all previous sin and enables the baptised to be re-born in God. The language used in this sonnet is particularly powerful in meaning as well. "Half-men" - Describes the men who don't want war as incomplete. The language used here is very powerful. Sleep is linked with death- pain of war will pass and fearing death is a bad thing. They will be cured by sleep and the purity in dying for your country.
There is evident oxymoron references in the description of death as "The worst friend and enemy" since it deprives us of life but also brings eternal peace.