War Poetry

Abstract

Contemplating his own death, the speaker, the soldier of the title, addresses the reader in the imperative: "think only this of me." The effect is emotional, creating a sense of immediacy and establishing the speaker's romantic attitude toward death in the line of duty. He suggests the reader should not mourn: whichever "corner of a foreign field" becomes the soldier's grave will also become "forever England." Thus, the soldier will not only have died for his country; he will have left a monument to it in a foreign land, figuratively transforming foreign soil to English soil.