At the beginning of the sonnet, the poet states that one should "think only this of me". The choice of the word "only" shows how the poet believes that the following is what is worth thinking about and that they should not bother about anything else concerning his death. This already shows how he ignores the fact about the cruelty of war and how he believes that personal loyalty to the country overrides everything else, even the losing of large numbers of young men's lives.
In the next line, he writes about how, if he dies, there would be "some corner of a foreign field/ That is for ever England". The use of "corner" and "foreign" brings with it a sense that the area is hidden and insignificant and this makes the reader feel distant from that place. However, this only serves to make the reader more proud of the soldier who is willing to go to far places just to fight for his country. By adding that that foreign corner will be "for ever England", the poet's intention is to make the readers be even more proud of the soldiers who died but left a permanent and eternal mark of their country, England, on that land. The readers would feel much pride that there are marks of England even in the far reaches of the world.
The poet then goes on to say "there shall be/ In that rich earth a richer dust concealed". We see the use of oxymoron in "richer dust" because dust has a connotation of being insignificant and is in contrast with being rich.
England is also personified to have "gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam". The image of the personified "England" giving her flowers to love is a very strong one as
"England bore, shaped, made aware", "body of England's", "breathing English air", "washed by the rivers" and "blest by the suns of home"
"this heart, all evil shed away"
"a pulse in the eternal mind"
"gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given" His service and death in war returns what England has given him.
In the second tercet of the sestet, the mood becomes much lighter with the mentioning of "sights and sounds", "dreams happy as her day", "laughter", "friends", "gentleness" and "at peace". By using such happy images to end off the poem, the poet is trying to imply of the happy ending of the soldiers as they have died gloriously by serving their country. The poet does this so as to conclude to the reader the poem's main intention of showing that serving in a war is all about glory and pride for your country and downplaying the pain and suffering.
Finally, all these gaiety are summed up as an "English heaven", to reinforce the superiority of England.