Who is the speaker in The Soldier?

• A. The poet
• B. The soldier
• C. The narrator's friend
• D. A mother

Answer: (B)

The speaker is the soldier. The poem is told in the first person, with lines like “If I should die, think only this of me,” which shows the voice speaking from the perspective of someone who expects to die in war. The idea that “there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England” frames the speaker as a soldier whose sacrifice ties him to England even in death. The voice isn’t the poet’s own voice as a writer, nor is it a mother or a friend speaking; it’s the soldier’s intimate, self-addressed reflection about dying for his country.