I chose to analyze “The Dead” by Rupert Brooke (although I’ll bring up “The Charge of the Light Brigade” if I run out of ideas before 10 minutes pass). At first glance, “The Dead” seems to fit the typical mold of a World War I poem, as it it appears to be a perversion of the classical poetry at the time. It is beautiful, lyrical, and mentions nature, yet its subject matter is death. While this is normal for a World War I poem, it does stand out in some ways from other WWI poetry. For one, many WWI poems address the reader as “you”, which Brooke does not do. This poem also seems to have more idealism than other WWI poetry. For example, CH Sorley also mentions victims of the war in his poem “When you see millions…”, but his poem is very dark and startling. This poem by Brooke only mentions the beautiful parts of life that these soldiers left behind, which idealizes them. (ugh sorry)