Authors

British · 1887–1915

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke was an English poet whose 1914 sonnet sequence — including 'The Soldier' ('If I should die, think only this of me') — made him the iconic voice of early World War One patriotism. His physical beauty and the circumstances of his death from blood poisoning on a hospital ship in the Aegean at twenty-seven transformed him into the myth of the sacrificed English golden youth. Winston Churchill wrote his obituary in The Times. His pre-war poetry, including 'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester,' shows considerable wit and range beyond the war myth.