Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon Essay -- Papers

Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon "Does It Matter" is an angry, heavily ironic war poem written in 1917 by the famous World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon. On first read, it appears that the poet is addressing an injured soldier who has returned from the trenches, asking this man whether or not it is important that he is missing limbs and sight, instead highlighting the virtues of the world and offering these as a remedy for his pains. The poem is written in a nursery-rhyme-like structure, where there is an obvious rhyming pattern and distinctive rhythm, and where many lines even have an equal number of syllables. For such a complicated subject matter, the poem is also rather brief - very succinct at just three stanzas comprising of five lines each. The opening lines of each stanza begin similarly with a question asked but never answered: Does it matter - losing your legs?... There is a lot to discuss even here. Firstly, we notice that the question itself is not answered - Sassoon does this very deliberately. Of course he goes on to back his rather naà ¯ve point by highlighting the constructive aspects of living without the use of one's legs, but he leaves a great void here, like the unfilled silence after a particularly awkward question. We, as readers, can easily answer the question of whether or not it matters in our own minds - of course it matters, and it matters further when we shake our heads at the sinister complacency exhibited throughout the remainder of the poem. Sassoon intentionally utilises this almost child-like perspective (given more strength through his nursery-rhyme structure and know-no-better naivet... ...stion at the beginning of each stanza - does it matter? The poem is turned on its head and, just maybe, the soldier complies with Hamlet's statements: "To die, to sleep / No more". How, then, does this fit in with the rest of the poem? Well, it soon becomes clear to me that the form of Utopia the narrator describes in the three stanzas is hard to visualise even today, and we must remember that the poem is set during a major and bloody war. This form of Utopia, then, can exist only beyond reality - in a paradise found after death. It would appear, then, that this is a goodbye note from a dying soldier, seeking comfort as he withers away amidst the fighting in thoughts of the "undiscovered country", and finally exhaling his last breath, taking his afflictions away with him to a place where 'people will always be kind'.