“Fragment”
In “Fragment” Rupert Brooke matches his associates to fragments whose presence would dismiss with death: “ Only, always,/I could but see them—against the lamplight—pass/Like coloured shadows, thinner than filmy glass,/Slight bubbles, fainter than the wave’s faint light,/That broke to phosphorus out in the night,/Perishing things and strange ghosts—soon to die/To other ghosts—this one, or that, or I.” The representation of his acquaintances suggests that Brooke’s spotlight is on their finale and not presence. For Brooke, once they expire they would inevitably transfigure into ghosts. Rupert Brooke renders his friends walking ghosts that will ultimately cease to be. For Brooke, the split-up between the lifespan and the ghosthood is insubstantial.
“The Dead”
“The Dead” is comparable to “Fragments” because it relates to the veracity of bereavement. Brooke writes, “These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,/ Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth./The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs,/And sunset, and the colours of the earth./These had seen movement, and heard music; known/Slumber and waking; loved; gone proudly friended.” The dead cannot be enchanted by the conventional human ecstasies because their form would not sanction them. Furthermore, they cannot perceive the dawns and sunsets that elated them when they existed for death is an unalterable truth.
