If I should die, think only this of me;
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.
This, from Rupert Brooke’s poem ‘The Soldier’, came to mind when I was looking at this photo that I took a few days ago.
This corner is ‘foreign’ in the sense that it is Scotland and not England.
But of all the vernacular architecture I have seen in Scotland, this reminds me of England most of all.
And here is the ‘pre-black-and-white’ version.
Lovely photo, and the little house is cute.
A sweet poem, even if I would have started it with «When I die…» 🙂
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Wonderful lighting on that Scottish house. As close as you can get to a lithograph in an old dog-eared novel.
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Thank you. I went to the scene specifically to take the shot, having seen the building on an earlier visit.
I shot it with a Fuji X100s and I’ve noticed a certain creaminess to the images.
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In fact he did die. But the romance of ‘The Soldier’ who died in battle in some foreign field was not to be.
It was 1915, and Brooke was due to take part in the Allied landing at Gallipoli but he died on board ship from an infected mosquito bite.
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As so often I find when I drop by this site… a beautiful photo, poignant thoughts and so much inspiration. Thanks David!
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Rupert Brooke seems to get a lot of bad press because he had the misfortune to be from the upper class and to die before he could fight. I think that’s a harsh view of the man – and a pity.
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