Does it Matter?

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 that you’ve fought for your country,
And no one will worry a bit.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

Questions

1. A rhetorical question is a question to which the answer is so obvious that it is not given. Such
questions are used to create an effect. What is obviously the answer to the questions with
which the stanzas begin?
Yes it does matter
2. What compensation do people offer to soldiers suffering from the war? List the compensation
per stanza.
1. Does it matter – people will always be kind
2. Losing your sight- lot of work opportunities
3. Dreams from the pit- no one will worry abit

3. From which line in the poem does it appear that the soldiers’ suffering has been in vain, after
all?
From the does it matter and do they matter

4. What is the principal emotion aroused in you after reading the poem?
Sadness