‘ Does It Matter?’ by Seigfried Sassoon is about people who have had to come back from the war with deformities, these are ‘losing your legs’ and ‘losing your sight’ as well as talking about these physical things he talks about ‘ those dreams from the pit’ which most soldiers experienced. He describes each of the mental and physical illnesses not as how they got them, but how people would react to them back at home. Sasson was a soldier in the war he saw everything first hand and despite being quite a famous writer, he wrote poems to The Times about how the war should stop. ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke is a poem to persuade friends and family that worry about a family member(s) who are going in to the war that everything is going to be ok, and if they die they will stay in a place that is ‘forever England’. He tries to persuade people that if you die you should be proud that you fought and died for the country and that people will respect you and you will be a hero. He also wants friends and family to think that they should be proud to know someone who died in the war. Brooke was a soldier but he did not actually fight when he got to the front line he died of malaria and was not in any live action. Comparing each of these poems on what they are about Brook’s poem persuades people to join because if they do die they will remain a hero forever but Sassoon’s poem tries to convince people that if you go to war and come back alive it will damage an aspect of you.
The mood of ‘Who’s the Game?’ is very jolly is makes you want to join up straight away as soon as you read the poem. The tone is very positive toward men joining up for the war. It also makes women who read this make their men join up so their husbands could sound strong and brave. It also makes the men seem if they join up that they are fearless. This is very similar to how ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke makes you feel, except in his poem Brooke makes you seem valiant if you fight and die in the war and persuades other members close to the soldier that the soldier is courageous by fighting for their country. They both persuade someone to fight and that it is the best thing, and that England with think them of a hero by fighting in the war.
The mood of the poem ‘Does It Matter?’ By Seigfried Sassoon is very ironic, all the way through the poem he sounds as if it does not matter about getting hurt mentally or physically during the war and when people read it makes them think that it does matter. Its satirical because he is saying that people who come back from the war with injuries that it wont matter because you are a hero, this makes some people contradict there thoughts on the war and makes people realise the dangers of the war. The mood of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is very similar they are both trying to persuade people that the war is not a good thing and murdering naive people who think war is going to be different. They both give windows into the real war. The mood for Dulce is very depressing it goes into vast detail about a man getting attacked. Both of the poems try to get the same mood across but do it in different way Sassoon makes his poem satirical, and Owen does his in a serious way.
In ‘Disabled’ it starts by describing the man’s suit as ‘ghastly suit of grey, legless, sewn short at the arms’ the phrase ‘ghastly suit of grey’ suggests to me that he could be in mourning, for his own death before he is dead. ‘Legless, sewn short at the elbow’ suggests to me that because they are describing the suit not him that the suit is more important then him and he is not worth mentioning. In ‘Does it matter?’ it uses a lot of imagery in each of the stanza’s he talks about a different injury and how people will react to it. In the first stanza he talks about losing his legs it talks about how it does not matter because everyone will be nice to you. On the third line in Stanza one he says’ when the others come back from hunting’ the word hunting suggests to me that, the people he was with had gone hunting for animals and they knew that they would hurt and kill innocent animals and that they would not be hurt, he could have used it as a metaphor and referred to the person who has lost his legs that he was hunted and innocent just like the animals. In ‘Disabled’ it has the same idea as comparing something animal ‘like a queer disease’ he is referring to himself as a disease, it is describing how woman are treating him. This makes me feel sorry for him because he is being referred to as a ‘disease’, this word suggests to me a rodent with a plague rather then a man. This adds to the effect of the reader feeling sorry for him because he describes people looking at him like he was a rat rather then a human. In ‘Dulce’ Owen talks about a man just being attacked by gas saying ‘ of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongue.’ The word vile suggests to me that its evil and low of what had happened to the poor boy. The words ‘incurable and innocent’ link the line together because of alliteration. ‘The Soldier’ links in with the last line of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ this is ‘ the old lie: Dulce et Decorum Est’ its saying that its not honourable to die for one’s country nor sweet. Were as in ‘The soldier’ Rupert Brooke says if you die for England God will love you. He starts the poem by predicting the worst ‘if I should die think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is Forever England.’
He is saying this because he has honourably fought and died for England so she will stay with him wherever he dies and this will be England. Even though they have a same idea ‘Who’s for the game?’ Compares the war as more of a game, in the first stanza it compares the war to a game of wrestling I know this because of the words’ grip and tackle’ in the second stanza it compares it to a race I know this because of the line ‘signal to go’ and it’s the same for the following two stanza’s. I think that this persuades people to join the war because if someone were sporty they would think that the war was like a game. In the poem it understates the war by calling it a ‘fight’ this means people would not think it was as serious and could mean it was just like a fistfight. She also refers to the worst things as coming back ‘ with a crutch’ were as in ‘Does it Matter?’ talks about loosing your legs. Similarities between two poems is that they both make the question open and involve you were as in ‘ The Soldier’ the poem starts with ‘if I’ an ‘Dulce’ is like a story of what happened in the war. In ‘Disabled’ he refers to his ‘youth last year’ he is referring to himself as old. The reader all through the poem is thinking that he is an old man talking about his past, but they discover that he is not old and grumpy but he’s young and it’s the world that has made him old. This phrase also suggests to me that he has seen so much death and has had so many bad memories that he could be mentally old, were as a year ago he was naïve and did not know much about the world. All four of these poems use similar and different techniques in persuasive and emotive language.
The stanza structure of ‘Who’s for the Game?’ and ‘ Does it Matter?’ is similar both poems are quite short and straight to the point. Were as ‘Dulce’ is quite long and ‘ The Soldier is just one long stanza’. ‘Dulce’ and ‘Does it Matter?’ have similar rhyming schemes there are both irregular and not the same in each stanza, this irregular pattern of rhyme express’s their views on the war by portraying that they think the war is un-steady and not correct. In ‘Who’s for the Game’ the first three lines in each stanza are about how great the war is and how brave and heroic you are if you join up, and on the last line in each stanza say if you don’t you will be missing out. In ‘The Soldier’ there is just one long stanza for the whole of the poem this also portrays Brook’s idea that if you die for your country you will live forever as a hero like how the stanza does not break it just keeps going. In Disabled in the 2nd stanza half way through there is a strong contrast this shows the reader the feelings of the person because its such a big change of what he used to feel like. The structure of ‘Does it matter’ goes a, b, b, c, a this shows the inconsistency of the war and how he does not think its right, were as ‘Who’s for the Game’s’ structure is a, b, a, b this is more consistent and give an upbeat rhythmic fun element to the war which makes the reader feel the war is good and fun and jolly.
In conclusion I have explained to you my thoughts on these four poems they are all similar and different in their own ways. In ‘ The Soldier’ and ‘Who’s for the Game’ have similar points that its good to join the war but ‘The Soldier’ talks about dying and being a hero and ‘Who’s for the Game?’ talks about its fun to join the war and it will be a game and the worst will happen is a crutch ‘come back with a crutch. This gives the idea that you will be healed and that you will not die and you will not be handicapped for a long period of time. ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ has the same opinion as ‘ Does it Matter?’ except ‘ Does it Matter?’ is incredibly sarcastic and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is serious. They are both talking about injuries you can get from the war and using this to convince people not to join up. Each poet had another poet that agreed with their idea’s but to persuade each person to follow their idea they used different techniques and also some similar ones.