Does it matter?

Does it matter
by Siegfried Sassoon




DOES it matter?--losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.



Does it matter?--losing your sight?...
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.


Do they matter?--those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know you've fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.








Maria, Mikkel and I have read the poem above and analyzed it:


The poem touches three effects the war has had on the soldier; social problems, physical damage and psychical damage. "Does it matter? - loosing your legs?" That is in the first verse and it is about physical damage. The second verse covers psychological damage because he looses his sight and he can't see anything, but still he turns his face to the light and trying to be positive. The last verse is about the social problems that fighting a war can give you. You can be mad after experiencing all those horrible things you can experience in a war, but people won't mind, because you have fought a war and it is OK to be mad.



We think the soldier is a working-class man. The rest of the community doesn’t see what he has sacrificed because he did it for the country, so his damages is not that bad. It seems like it is the government saying “Does it matter?” and they don’t really see the individual but try to glorify his actions.

The poem has a newfound popularity and it might be because today we focus more on individual rights, we think it is important to see the individual as a person and not for what they sacrifice in a war. In this poem they put the country above the person which was normal to do in that time period(around 1916). We can also see this trend in the rest of the modern society with less person joining for instance political organizations today than 100 years ago. (source - "Å gjøre en forskjell" Jonas Stør)



“Does it Matter?” was the poem that appealed the most to us because we think it is more directly than the other one(the soldier).

About me

Hi.

My name is Ingrid and I'm 17 years old. I live in Bærum and go to Sandvika VGS which is a modern school in Sandvika. I have English every Tuesday and will use the blog to write about what we learn in school.

The picture shows a bridge that is in front of our school. The bridge is called the Claude Monét's brigde and is very old.

In my spear time i work in a shoe store which is called Bekkestua sko, meet my friends and I exercise a lot. And of course I do my homework. I also spend a lot of time in Sandvika Storsenter which is Scandinavia’s biggest mall, and spend too much money on clothes and other stuff I really don't need.

I live in Rykkinn in Bærum. My family has a red house and I live there with my mother, father and sister. We have a dog called Zita. She is an American cocker spaniel and the cutest dog I've ever seen.

Zita is the same type of dog as Lady.