"And the winds of history will follow us all the way":
Rupert Brooke in the Aegean

 

 

Despite critical awareness of WWI poets’ use of the topoi of classical literature, little attention has been paid to the impact of classical topography on their lives, work, and reception. This paper begins to address the lack by exploring the case of Rupert Brooke, who died en route to the Eastern Front in 1915.

 

Brooke’s letters indicate a young man affected by the sites/sights of the classical world in a complex way. On one level, a shared educational background allowed Brooke and his compatriots to encrypt their voyage in a kind of historical and mythological code, hinting at their location so as to outwit the censors. At the same time, Brooke’s sense that he was traveling through the classical past influenced the way he wrote about the future.

 

With reference to Brooke’s letters and poems and other contemporary sources, I argue that Brooke’s tour of the classical landscape, informed by his classical education, not only conditioned his literary presentation of the war but also helped shape the myth of the fallen Apolline hero that grew up around him after his death.