Rupert Brooke established his initial public reputation as a poet as a result of the publication of Poems, 1911. He finalised this in a burst of energy at the end of 1911, at the same time as he was writing his fellowship dissertation for King's College, Cambridge.

Poems, 1911, was thought by critics at the time to reveal two of Brooke's strongest character traits: his breadth of interest, and his daring lack of taste. In his review in The Morning Post, Brooke's friend the poet Edward Thomas wrote:

"He is full of revolt, self-contempt, and yet arrogance too. he reveals chiefly what he desires to be and to be thought. Now and then he gives himself away, as when , in three poems close together, he speaks of the scent of warm clover. Copies chould be bought by everyone over forty who has never been under forty. It will be a revelation. Also if they live yet a little longer they may see Mr Rupert Brooke a poet. He will not be a little one."