“If I were fierce…I’d live with scarlet Majors…”,
but are in reality pathetic, puffing figures:
“…bald, and short of breath”
What Sassoon particularly hated was how these pompous people sent miserable young men to die at the Front:
“…speed glum heroes up the line to death”
Whilst they were safely tucked away at Base, eating and drinking the best of food and wine:
“Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel”
It was so irritating hearing the patronising words of sympathy:
“…poor young chap, I used to know his father well”
And of course when the war was over, these officers could return safely and uninjured to England, unlike countless millions of ordinary soldiers and other officers:
“And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die - in bed.”
Every line drips with sarcasm which powerfully brings out the unfairness of how the war was conducted.
This brings me to my second point, and what happened when the many injured soldiers returned to Britain, which is what is “Does it Matter?” is about.
In this poem, Sassoon deals with soldiers with physical and mental injuries of all sorts.
“…losing your legs”
“…losing your sight”
“…those dreams from the pit”
Having returned, people at home tried to be nice and understanding, but really had no appreciation of how these words would be felt as patronising and how it is to feel you are being pitied in this way.
Sassoon again uses a form of sarcasm here, although less bitter than in “Base Details”. In each of the three stanzas of this poem, Sassoon asks with irony:
“Does it matter?”
that the soldier had such and such an injury when it clearly matters whether you have lost you legs, or sight or are going out of your mind with awful nightmares.
In each case he paints a picture of how hurtful and frustrating it was for these soldiers to hear people at home almost dismiss their injuries, when they can then happily go about their own lives in a way that the soldiers cannot:
“…when the others come in after hunting (with legs!)”
It really was so patronising, even if unintentional, to say:
“There is such splendid work for the blind”
Or
“And people won’t say that you’re mad;
For they’ll know that you fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.”
It is really like saying “there, there” to a child.War is always an awful thing, and causes much misery for all concerned.
In the above poems about the Great War, Sassoon focused on two aspects, the awful unfairness of how ordinary soldiers were sent to their death by useless and vain superiors, and the anguish of those who returned injured caused by the patronising pity of those at home.
