Composition

This section will deal with both the outer composition and inner composition of the poem “Does It Matter?” by Siegfried Sassoon and will provide relevant points for a discussion about both the form and content of the text.

Outer composition

The poem is formed of three different stanzas with five lines each. The stanzas follow the rhyme pattern ABBCA, like in the following example, where “legs” rhymes with “eggs” and “kind” rhymes with “mind”:

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. (ll. 1-5)

As you can see, the fourth line of each stanza does not rhyme with anything but helps create the rhythm of the poem.

When it comes to rhythm, you might notice that the poem is constructed in the form of a trimeter, which means that there are three syllables stressed in one line. The poem contains anapaests (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable), like in the following example: “Does it matter?—losing your legs?...” (l. 1)

However, there are instances in which the iambic trimeter is observed (one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), like in the next line, where an iamb is follow...