Comparative Commentary.. The Soldier & Colonization in Reverse

Rupert Brooke, an English poet, wrote the poem “The Soldier” in December 1914. In this poem the author explains about a man who loves his country of England. He believes that if he should die in a far away battle field that people should remember of him only that he was English. In contrast with the poem of Louise Bennett, a Jamaican poet, who wrote “Colonization in Reverse” in 1966, she explains the truth he truth about her society through its own language.  

The ideas that Brooke wanted to transmit through his poem was to reflect the romantic and patriotic mood that was shared by most of the country.  The Jamaican poet wanted to reflect in her poems the way Jamaicans think, feel and live. She raised the dialect of the Jamaican folk to an art level which is acceptable to and appreciated by all in Jamaica. The structure that the English poet used is with similes. He said “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day”.  The simile used has a patriotic and honorable theme. That is because, as the soldier was prepared to die, he has thought of only England as the only country that means so much to him, and to die for it he was very honorable to accept his defeat. In the poem of Louise Bennett it is difficult to identify the structure she uses because she is writing the way black people write.

The words that this poet uses are difficult to me to understand them because I’m not used to apply those kinds of words in my language. The tone that Brooke uses is with sentimentality and nationalism. Brooke’s poem gives a strong patriotic feeling to all the readers. He uses the conditional tenses if I should die' which gives us the image of him dreaming or fantasizing about the war. The emotional state that Bennett reflects that she was able to capture all the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaicans' joys and sorrows.

Brooke uses an abundance of positive connotations to depict this romantic image of a positive death. Through his poetry he is somewhat building up this romantic relationship that he has with England, and encouraging others to have this same relationship. He believed that dying for his country was sweet and honorable. The image of this poem is about a man who is very brave and would do anything for his country. Images in "The Soldier" are extremely strong and persuading.

One image is "Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam."   This line
evokes images of a beautiful woman cherishing and caressing the man who stands at her side.   Another line is "Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home." This line creates a feeling of tranquility and a unity with nature. Without such strong images, the poem would probably not have such a great effect on the reader.   By the other hand, in colonization in reverse the poet says “I feel like my heart will burst” here she explains how she feels and she doesn’t uses any metaphor.

Rupert Brooke uses fluid and long, yet well-linked sentences for his poem, thus giving the reader a pacify effect. He doesn’t repeat words and he do not use rhymes. He uses a right punctuation and he uses 14 verses.  Bennett’s uses in some verses rhymes if you read the poem as in an American way, for example, in “by the hundreds and the thousands, from rural and Kingston ground, by the ship-loads and the plane-loads Jamaica is England bound” here it rhymes the words ground and bound, both words end in the same last four letters.

I can conclude that these poems are very different because The Soldier explains about war; it glorifies the heroism of the English soldiers who fought in WWI. This poem is pointing out that war is not always started for the reasons that your government tells you.  The poem is a traditional sonnet in which Brooke expresses his love for England and how he believes it is right to fight and die for his country. His poem is very idealistic and has a very traditional viewpoint In the poem of Colonization in Reverse the author Bennett used the originality of spoken Jamaican English as her idiom rather than “standard English”.

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