‘A young Apollo, golden-haired / Stands dreaming on the verge of strife…’

 

The life of Rupert Brooke was brought to its end at the age of 27, moored on a hospital ship at Gallipoli. In the outpouring of national grief that followed, the life of the young poet was largely forgotten.

 

Nowadays, Brooke is probably remembered for his war sonnets and ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.’  Understandably, he is considered a last hurrah of the belle époque, the public-school spirit that died in the mud of Flanders.

 

The Verge of Strife depicts the life of Brooke through an impressionistic series of images centred upon his poems. Each episode reveals one aspect of his increasingly troubled life as it moves towards its conclusion. The myriad facets of the young poet, contradictory and in tension, gradually produce a composite portrait of a very particular young man.