"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester" by Rupert Brooke (poetry)

Brooke wrote this poem in Berlin, 1912 an uncomfortable place to be, one might think, no wonder he was so homesick. Brooke wrote what are now considered as war poems but he died of an infection before the First World War, and the poems express his feelings not his experiences. Later he lost popularity because of comparisons with Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon - but it was hardly his fault. He was a pre-war poet.

"Betreten verboten" means no trespassing.

"ei' qe genoi mhn" just means "I wish I were..." - at least I think so .

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[baldF]

"Brooke wrote what are now considered as war poems but he died of an infection before the First World War".

Well - NO

Brooke was a War Poet ... World War I went from 1914 - 1918... the rest of the world doesn't necessarily operate according to American time (as nice as the Americans may be).

Brooke was in the Royal Navy - he saw action at Antwerp in 1914 ... he died of a blood poisoning infection in 1915 in the Greek Isles

[SpokenVerse]

@baldF Well, yes, but the rest of the sentence was "the poems express his feelings not his experiences." I could have expressed it better, I agree. He didn't write any significant poetry about his personal experience of war and can't be placed in the same category as Sassoon, Owen, etc.

[stevewestenra]

Haslingfield, Babraham and Madingley are not pronounced correctly.

Locals Pronounce them: Hayslingfield; Madingley (not Madeingly); and Babebraham or Babebrum.

[SpokenVerse]

Thank you for the information. I hope it didn't spoil the rest of the poem for you.

[ianskidmore]

i rexckon in somecorner of a fotreign field qualifies him as a war poet, if not terribly war like. Try Keith Saunders

[conscheme]

Hi, your recordings are wonderful. I just wanted to say, "eithe genoimin" is Ancient Greek for 'Would I were', which is how the line continues in English.