What does the "dust" mentioned in lines 4-5 likely represent? Cite evidence to support your answer. If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blessed by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

In the poem, "dust" most likely refers to the body of the dead soldier.

Explanation:

The poem we are analyzing here is called "The Soldier", and it was written by English author Rupert Chawner Brooke. The soldier himself is the speaker in the poem.

Right from the start, he says, "If I should die." From here on, we must imagine this soldier dead, his body lying somewhere in a foreign field. "There shall be / In that rich earth a richer dust concealed" means that his decayed body will mix itself with the earth on which it lies. His body is the "richer dust". It is an old idea, biblical even, that our bodies are made of dust, and to dust they return once we die. However, the dust that is the soldier's body is richer than the dust of the ground. His dust was once alive. It loved and was loved. It cared for and defended his country: "A dust whom / England bore, shaped, made aware, / Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; / A body of England's, breathing English air, / Washed by the rivers, blessed by suns of home."

imparadis't in one anothers arms  

the happier eden, shall enjoy their fill  

of bliss on bliss, while i to hell am thrust,  

where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,  

among our other torments not the least,  

still unfulfill'd with pain of longing pines;  

yet let me not forget what i have gain'd  

from their own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:  

one fatal tree there stands of knowledge call'd,  

forbidden them to taste: knowledge forbidd'n?  

suspicious, reasonless. why should their lord  

envie them that? can it be sin to know,