Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire
Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Into the shade and loneliness and mire
Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,
One day, I think, I'll feel a cool wind blowing,
See a slow light across the Stygian tide,
And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,
And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,
And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,
Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,
Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam --
Most individual and bewildering ghost! --
And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.
Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Into the shade and loneliness and mire
Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,
One day, I think, I'll feel a cool wind blowing,
See a slow light across the Stygian tide,
And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,
And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,
And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,
Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,
Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam --
Most individual and bewildering ghost! --
And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.
Form and Background:
I found this sonnet on the internet and it ammused me, so therefore I decided to write about it. The external form follows the sonnet ryme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Rupert Brooke has three stanzas, and a concluding couplet at the end of his sonnet as well. I never heard of Rupert before, so upon a little research i found out he is a Brittish poet known for his war poems about WWI, yet he never experienced combat first hand. He was also described as "the handsomest young man in England".
I found this sonnet on the internet and it ammused me, so therefore I decided to write about it. The external form follows the sonnet ryme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Rupert Brooke has three stanzas, and a concluding couplet at the end of his sonnet as well. I never heard of Rupert before, so upon a little research i found out he is a Brittish poet known for his war poems about WWI, yet he never experienced combat first hand. He was also described as "the handsomest young man in England".
Analysis:
This poem struck me as interesting because of its capitalization of the word "Dead", he does not capitalize "died", yet one of his lines goes to say "hear the Dead about me stir", meanning Dead is a propper noun, much like people and their names. He notes that watching you smile is like a dream, which is interesting in the sense of how it reminds me of the dream-like state Hamlet belives is related to death. Hamlet also beleives he sees his fathers ghost, and Rupert references a gleaming and bewilderign ghost in which he believes to see, as his punctuation references exitement.
He also relates nature into his poem, as i was unsure of what "mire" was, and it is muddy gorund much like a bog or a swamp. He talks about "lost land", which might mean lost time. The "Stygian tide" is a glum reference, as it is defined as infernal and hellish.
His couplet "And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead " adds to my theory of how the subject is not accually dead, but death is a metaphor. As to state the obvious, dead people dont "turn and toss", unless the subject was a ghost as mentionined in the third stanza.
His couplet "And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead " adds to my theory of how the subject is not accually dead, but death is a metaphor. As to state the obvious, dead people dont "turn and toss", unless the subject was a ghost as mentionined in the third stanza.
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