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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > English > Does it Matter? - Siegfried Sassoon
- Cheerie language - shows bitterness towards boosterism and jingoism
- ridiculous sentences point out the ridiculous ideas at the time - 'Does it matter? Losing your legs?/ For people will always be kind'
- First stanza - shows how you will miss out while other people live out their lives 'hunting' and 'gobble their muffins and eggs'
- The sarcasm shows how people who have fought and gained such awful injuries, though praised for their action, will eventually be forgotten, pitied or life half a life because of this war
- Repetition of 'people' creates a divide between 'you'/the disabled and the fit
- Use of 'you' draws reader in, it is direct and causes them to think and consider themselves in this position
- Describes both physical and mental damage - Sassoon having experienced mental problems [shell shock/neurasthenia] himself
- Last stanza must be Sassoon speaking from experience. 'And people won't say you're mad'... Remind anyone of Regeneration and the scene where Sassoon asks Rivers 'you said you didn't think i was mad' [I can't remember the exact wording, please could anyone find the quote?]
- He sarcastically calls drink a solution to the problem. I need another word for sarcastic..
- use of 'they' again distances the reader and the narrator from people who never fought, a topic that Sassoon himself had strong feelings about. He had a hatred for people who had never fought, especially women.
- "people won't say that you're mad;/ For they'll know you've fought for your country" - fighting for your country = madness?
- Finally the last line 'and no one will worry a bit' - you will receive no sympathy
Comments
These notes are aimed at A Level English students at A2 level.
Originally written by Yeppo on TSR Forums.
