Rupert Brooke
Born at Rugby, August 3,Fellow of King's,Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.V.R., September 1914Antwerp Expedition, October 1914Sailed with British MediterraneanExpeditionary Force, February 28,Died in the AEgean, April 23,
These poems have appeared in New Numbers, the old Poetry Review,Poetry and Drama, Rhythm, The Blue Review, The New Statesman,The Pall Mall Magazine, and Basileon. Acknowledgements are due tothe Editors who have allowed them to be reprinted.
Words in this poem
- expeditionary a.
- Of or pertaining to an expedition; as, an expeditionary force.
- mall n.
- A large heavy wooden beetle; a mallet for driving anything with force; a maul. [OE. malle, F. mail, L. malleus. Cf. Malleus.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rupert Brooke is in the public domain. This text is taken from 1914, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33902; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rupert Brooke, Rupert Brooke, in 1914 and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33902, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/brooke-1914/rupert-brooke.html, id L04726.
Form and metre
Rupert Brooke is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 74% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.7 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-AA-AA — · king's · — · — · mediterranean · — · —
- 2 A-A- reviewA · statesman · toA · reprinted
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Born at Rugby, August 3, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Fellow of King's, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.V.R., September 1914 | 11 | ·˘/˘····˘/˘ |
| Antwerp Expedition, October 1914 | 9 | /˘·˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Sailed with British Mediterranean | 9 | ··/˘·˘˘/˘ |
| Expeditionary Force, February 28, | 11 | ·˘/˘·˘·/˘·˘ |
| Died in the AEgean, April 23, | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| These poems have appeared in New Numbers, the old Poetry Review, | 16 | ·/˘·˘/··/˘··/˘·/ |
| Poetry and Drama, Rhythm, The Blue Review, The New Statesman, | 15 | /˘·/˘/˘···/··/˘ |
| The Pall Mall Magazine, and Basileon. Acknowledgements are due to | 16 | ···/˘·····˘/˘··· |
| the Editors who have allowed them to be reprinted. | 13 | ·/˘··˘/···˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.