ENGLISH LITERATURE
PORTFOLIO
,YEAR
ASSIGNMENT 1: (group
paraphrase, nd theme and turning point for each of the followin
poems. Then look at the ‘mood’ the poems were written in. (e.g. nationalistic, fatalistic, sarcastic, ,
etc…
Compare them to each other and look at what they try to tell the ‘audience’.
Give your opinion: Which one left the deepest impression on you and why
1. POETRY ANALYSIS ‘THE SOLDIER’
Title: The Soldier!
Writer: Rupert Brooke!
Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-soldier-by-rupert-brooke-1221215
Literary Period: The Great War
Year of publication: 191
Mood: nationalisti
1. If I should die, think only this of me:
2. That there's some corner of a foreign eld
3. That is for ever England. There shall be
4. In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5. A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6. Gave, once, her owers to love, her ways to roam,
7. A body of England's, breathing English air,
8. Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9. And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10. A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11. Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
12. Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13. And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14. In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Paraphrase the poem: The rst stanza of the poem says that when a soldier dies, his bones
are buried and his soul always remains a piece of England. That he must continue to be remembe-
red how he sacri ced himself for the country and how beautiful England was. In the second stanza
it is said what England did for the soldier and the soldier had to be grateful for everything England
gave and that he died to protect his homeland.
Theme: Fighting for the fatherland and being grateful for that honour
Stanzas: 2 stanza (= octave and sestet), and the turning point is after the octave.
Rhyme scheme: ABABCDCD CDECD
Meter: Iambic pentamete
Speaker: Rupert Brooke.
Audience: English soldiers.
Language: The use of language in the poem is not dif cult, but there are words in the poem that
create confusion.
Symbols, personi cations, similes etc. and what they signify
- In the rst stanza the deceased soldier is compared to a part of the nature.
2
, - In line 6 there is a personi cation. England performs actions such as 'gift owers to love'. But Eng-
land is a thing and can't do anything itself.
- In line 9 is also a personi cation. The heart here is assigned a human act called 'shed all the evil
away'. A heart is a thing and cannot perform an action.
2. POETRY ANALYSIS ‘DOES IT MATTER?’
Title: Does it Matter?!
Writer: Siegfried Sassoo
Literary Period: First world wa
Year of publication: 191
Mood: fatalisti
1. Does it matter? - losing your legs?...
2. For people will always be kind,
3. And you need not show that you mind
4. When the others come in after hunting
5. To gobble their muf ns and eggs
6. Does it matter? - losing your sight?...
7. There's such splendid work for the blind;
8. And people will always be kind,
9. As you sit on the terrace remembering
10. And turning your face to the light
11. Do they matter? -those dreams from the pit?...
12. You can drink and forget and be glad,
13. And people won't say that you're mad;
14. For they'll know that you've fought for your country,
15. And no one will worry a bit.
Paraphrase the poem: The poem is about how a soldier can get all sorts of injuries while
ghting in a war, such as losing a leg or his sight, but that doesn't matter but that the soldiers are
expected to live with these damages as they did before the war, when they had not suffered any-
thing.
Theme: Honour, get injured during war/ war injuries.
Stanzas: 3 stanza and there is no turning point.
Rhyme scheme: ABBCA DEEFD GHHI
Meter: Iambic pentamete
Speaker: 3rd person omniscient narrator
Audience: the people of Britai
Language: The use of language in the poem is not dif cult, because the poem had to be under-
stood by everyone in England.
Symbols, personi cations, similes etc. and what they signify
- The poem contains many understatements. Losing your leg or your sight is portrayed in the
poem as if it is nothing and it doesn't matter.
3
PORTFOLIO
,YEAR
ASSIGNMENT 1: (group
paraphrase, nd theme and turning point for each of the followin
poems. Then look at the ‘mood’ the poems were written in. (e.g. nationalistic, fatalistic, sarcastic, ,
etc…
Compare them to each other and look at what they try to tell the ‘audience’.
Give your opinion: Which one left the deepest impression on you and why
1. POETRY ANALYSIS ‘THE SOLDIER’
Title: The Soldier!
Writer: Rupert Brooke!
Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-soldier-by-rupert-brooke-1221215
Literary Period: The Great War
Year of publication: 191
Mood: nationalisti
1. If I should die, think only this of me:
2. That there's some corner of a foreign eld
3. That is for ever England. There shall be
4. In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
5. A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
6. Gave, once, her owers to love, her ways to roam,
7. A body of England's, breathing English air,
8. Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
9. And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
10. A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
11. Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
12. Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
13. And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
14. In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Paraphrase the poem: The rst stanza of the poem says that when a soldier dies, his bones
are buried and his soul always remains a piece of England. That he must continue to be remembe-
red how he sacri ced himself for the country and how beautiful England was. In the second stanza
it is said what England did for the soldier and the soldier had to be grateful for everything England
gave and that he died to protect his homeland.
Theme: Fighting for the fatherland and being grateful for that honour
Stanzas: 2 stanza (= octave and sestet), and the turning point is after the octave.
Rhyme scheme: ABABCDCD CDECD
Meter: Iambic pentamete
Speaker: Rupert Brooke.
Audience: English soldiers.
Language: The use of language in the poem is not dif cult, but there are words in the poem that
create confusion.
Symbols, personi cations, similes etc. and what they signify
- In the rst stanza the deceased soldier is compared to a part of the nature.
2
, - In line 6 there is a personi cation. England performs actions such as 'gift owers to love'. But Eng-
land is a thing and can't do anything itself.
- In line 9 is also a personi cation. The heart here is assigned a human act called 'shed all the evil
away'. A heart is a thing and cannot perform an action.
2. POETRY ANALYSIS ‘DOES IT MATTER?’
Title: Does it Matter?!
Writer: Siegfried Sassoo
Literary Period: First world wa
Year of publication: 191
Mood: fatalisti
1. Does it matter? - losing your legs?...
2. For people will always be kind,
3. And you need not show that you mind
4. When the others come in after hunting
5. To gobble their muf ns and eggs
6. Does it matter? - losing your sight?...
7. There's such splendid work for the blind;
8. And people will always be kind,
9. As you sit on the terrace remembering
10. And turning your face to the light
11. Do they matter? -those dreams from the pit?...
12. You can drink and forget and be glad,
13. And people won't say that you're mad;
14. For they'll know that you've fought for your country,
15. And no one will worry a bit.
Paraphrase the poem: The poem is about how a soldier can get all sorts of injuries while
ghting in a war, such as losing a leg or his sight, but that doesn't matter but that the soldiers are
expected to live with these damages as they did before the war, when they had not suffered any-
thing.
Theme: Honour, get injured during war/ war injuries.
Stanzas: 3 stanza and there is no turning point.
Rhyme scheme: ABBCA DEEFD GHHI
Meter: Iambic pentamete
Speaker: 3rd person omniscient narrator
Audience: the people of Britai
Language: The use of language in the poem is not dif cult, because the poem had to be under-
stood by everyone in England.
Symbols, personi cations, similes etc. and what they signify
- The poem contains many understatements. Losing your leg or your sight is portrayed in the
poem as if it is nothing and it doesn't matter.
3
