1887-1915. English poet, symbol of the World
War I `lost generation'. His poems, the most
popular being the five war sonnets (including
`Grantchester' and `The Great Lover'), were
published posthumously. Born in Rugby, where
he was educated, Brooke travelled abroad
after a nervous breakdown in 1911, but in
1913 won a fellowship at King's College,
Cambridge. Later that year he toured America
(Letters from America 1916), New Zealand, and
the South Seas, and in 1914 became an officer
in the Royal Naval Division. After fighting
at Antwerp, he sailed for the Dardanelles,
but died of blood-poisoning on the Greek
island of Skyros, where he is buried.