This poem expresses the speaker's wish that if they were to die in a foreign land, that spot of earth where they were laid to rest would always be considered part of England. They want to be remembered not as belonging to the foreign field in which their body lies, but as having been a part of England - having been shaped by England's flowers, ways, rivers, suns, sights, sounds, laughter and friends, and having found gentleness and peace under an English heaven.

2. IF I should die,
………….think only this of me:

3. That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.

4. Gave, once, her flowers to love, her
ways to roam,

5. A body of England's, breathing
English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by
the suns of home.

6. And think, this heart, all evil shed
away

7. Her sights and sounds; dreams
happy as her day;

8. And laughter, learnt of friends; and
gentleness

9. In hearts at peace, under an
English heaven.

10. In hearts at peace, under an
English heaven.