RUPERT CHAWNER BROOKE, 1887-1915.

Georgian poet. Born at Rugby. Educated at Rugby School and King's College, Cambridge. He was an atheist and active Socialist.

He was a friend of Edward Marsh and worked with him to prepare and promote the first Georgian Anthology of poetry.

After travelling in Germany, and, following his nervous breakdown he went on a long tour to recuperate, taking in the USA, Canada, Honolulu, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, and Tahiti.

After hesitation about what course of action to take at the start of the First World War he joined the navy. He was a witness at the siege of Antwerp before writing his famous set of five sonnets called 1914. Though he had seen the devastation and suffering created by the war he kept it all at an emotional distance from himself, denying the realities of war.

He had a deeply confused personality - given to both ecstatic enthusiasm and suicidal doubt.

Following a mosquito bite he died of acute blood poisoning on board ship on his way to Gallipoli, and was buried on the Greek Island of Skyros.

Minds at War and Out in the Dark contain all five of Brooke's 1914 war sonnets, plus his sombre and realistic last poem, Soon to Die.