galleries

Portraits

At the height of his fame, Brooke was renowned as a handsome poet who embodied the spirit of English youth, an ideal which was later held up in propaganda to be striding honourably into battle at the onset of the first world war.

In respect of this iconic status, these portraits speak for themselves. It is easy to see why Brooke was described as a "Young Apollo, Golden-haired" in a poem of the time by Frances Cornford.

Skyros and Brooke's grave

Another element that adds to Brooke's romantic status is the nature of his death at the start of the first world war. As well as being on the route to the Dardenelles in Turkey, the site of the plains of Troy, Brooke also died on 23rd April, the day of Shakespeare and St George. When one also takes into account the fact that Skyros, the Greek island where he is buried, was the birthplace of Theseus, his favourite Greek hero, you can see why Brooke the poet could not have chosen a more fitting place to die apart from his beloved England.

The icon in Skyros chapel

I also have another, rather significant, footnote to add to the romanticism here: when I made my own pilgrimage to Skyros in 1992 I made my way up to the small chapel at the top of Skyros town (pictured below). When I went inside there was a small gold icon sitting on a shelf cut into the stone wall. When I moved closer I realised it was an icon of St George, the patron saint of the island, which legend had it had been washed up onto the shore hundreds of years before.