This poem, published in Brooke’s third collection of war sonnets, is dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives in the Great War. Brooke chose the sonnet form because of its suitability for solemn religious or philosophical subjects.

Unlike his contemporaries, Wilfred Owen and Siegried Sassoon, Brooke retains his idealism and didn’t focus on the suffering and waste of young lives. He died before he could witness the horrors of war, and so retains confidence in the value of sacrifice.

Structure
The poem follows the classic sonnet template, comprising fourteen lines and with the rhyme scheme ABBA CDDC EFE GFG. The metrical rhythm is broadly iambic pentameter, creating an elegant rhythmic tread. The volta or “turn” is after comes after the first eight lines. For more about sonnets see below.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of a third person narrator, we can assume the poet. The tone is celebratory. Those who lost their lives are referred to as “the rich Dead”, with the capitalised noun giving weight to the idea of noble sacrifice. Other capitalised abstract nouns appear in line ten and thirteen — “Love”, “Pain” and “Nobleness”. The lines flow smoothly and easily, suggesting confidence and absence of doubt.

ABOUT SONNETS
A sonnet is a poem which expresses a thought or idea and develops it, often cleverly and wittily. It is made up of 14 lines, each being 10 syllables long. Its rhymes are arranged according to one of the following schemes:

• Italian, where eight lines consisting of two quatrains make up the first section of the sonnet, called an octave. This will open the the poem with a question or an idea. It is followed by the next section of six lines called a sestet, that forms the ‘answer’ or a counter-view. This style of sonnet is also sometimes called a Petrarchan sonnet.

• English which comprises three quatrains, making twelve lines, followed by a rhyming couplet. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern. Edmund Spenser’s sonnets are a variant.

At the break in the sonnet — in Italian after the first eight lines, in English after twelve lines — there is a ‘turn’ or volta, after which there will be a change or new perspective on the preceding idea.

Most English sonnets of the sixteenth and seventeenth century are in iambic pentameter, that is five metrical ‘feet’ or ‘iambs’ — that is ten syllables — per line. This gives a stately, elegant rhythm.