The poem is told from the first-person point of view of a patriotic English soldier on the battlefield who loves his country dearly. He is addressing a beloved person or people back home. In these verses, the soldier tells his loved ones that if he dies on his foreign battlefield, a little bit of England will be left behind with him. England, he assures them, formed him, and his Englishness can never leave him. He is the country he may die to protect, for he brings its goodness—its flowers, its air, its rivers—abroad with him.

Brooke chose this point of view to give comfort to the people back home. The speaker's word reassure loved ones that their beloved, if he dies, does so willingly for the cause of protecting the homeland. If he dies, they can take solace in the idea that he has shed any evil and is at peace, dreaming of England, "happy as her day."

This point of view affects the meaning of the poem by conveying quiet patriotism. It is a pro-war poem meant to assure people in simple terms that all is well with England's soldiers. They are at peace with the idea of fighting and dying. Their loved ones, therefore, should not worry about them, for even if they die, they bring with them:

laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.