Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) was an English poet whose early work reflected Georgian literary tastes before he became associated with First World War verse. Educated at Rugby School and King’s College, Cambridge, he moved in influential literary circles and published poems that brought him wide attention. In 1914 he wrote a sequence of five war sonnets, later collected as *1914 and Other Poems*, including “The Soldier,” which helped shape an idealised image of patriotic sacrifice. Brooke was commissioned in the Royal Naval Division and travelled with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He died in 1915 from blood poisoning caused by an infected mosquito bite and was buried on the Greek island of Skyros.