Does It Matter? quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary movement best describes "Does It Matter?"?

   • Victorian Verse / Elegy
   • Pastoral Poetry / Nature Poetry
   • Correct answer: War Poetry / Protest Poetry
   • Romanticism / Lyric Poetry
   • Imagism / Modernist Poetry

   Correct: "Does It Matter?" is war poetry that doubles as political protest — Sassoon uses biting sarcasm to indict civilian society's indifference to wounded soldiers.

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2. 2

   Question 2. In the last stanza, why does the speaker say people won't call the soldier mad, and what does that reveal?

   • Correct answer: Because he fought for his country; his service becomes everyone's excuse not to worry about him
   • Because doctors have cured his nightmares; the poem praises the medical care given to veterans
   • Because he hides his bad dreams well; the poem blames the soldier for keeping his pain a secret
   • Because the war has finally ended; the poem suggests that peacetime will slowly heal every wound

   The speaker says people won't say that you're mad, "For they'll know that you've fought for your country." Patriotic respect sounds like kindness, but it lets everyone file the soldier's trauma away as honorable and stop thinking about it. That is why the poem ends "And no one will worry a bit." The nation's gratitude becomes its excuse for neglect.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What is the dominant tone of "Does It Matter?"?

   • Genuinely optimistic and encouraging, celebrating the recovery of wounded veterans
   • Correct answer: Bitterly sarcastic, mimicking society's dismissive attitude toward veterans
   • Mournful and elegiac, lamenting the fallen soldiers who never returned from the war
   • Furious and confrontational, directly attacking the generals and politicians

   Sassoon adopts the cheery, dismissive voice of civilian society — "people will always be kind" — but his real meaning is the opposite. The controlled sarcasm makes the indifference more chilling than a direct outburst would be.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why is the repeated phrase "people will always be kind" ironic?

   • Because the people offering kindness are fellow soldiers, not civilians who remained at home
   • Because Sassoon is quoting a famous government propaganda slogan from wartime recruitment posters
   • Because Sassoon is sincerely praising the genuine compassion British civilians showed returning veterans
   • Correct answer: Because the "kindness" is hollow politeness that costs nothing and avoids confronting real suffering

   The "kindness" Sassoon describes is mere politeness — society offers sympathetic words while expecting wounded soldiers to hide their pain. It is a kindness that serves the comfortable, not the suffering.

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5. 5

   Question 5. In the first stanza, what image highlights the gulf between the wounded soldier and the able-bodied?

   • Correct answer: Others coming in after football to gobble their muffins and eggs
   • A hospital ward filled with recovering soldiers
   • A recruitment poster displayed on a village wall
   • A military parade passing through the town center

   Sassoon juxtaposes the soldier's lost legs with the carefree physical activity and thoughtless appetite of the able-bodied — football, muffins, and eggs represent the normal life the veteran can never rejoin.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What is the blinded soldier doing "on the terrace" in the second stanza?

   • Performing the "splendid work for the blind" that society has arranged for him
   • Reading letters from fellow soldiers who are still fighting in the trenches
   • Entertaining sympathetic visitors who have come to pay their respects
   • Correct answer: Sitting, remembering, and turning his face to the light he can never see

   The blind veteran sits passively, remembering his lost sight, and turns toward light he can feel but never see again. The image captures the devastating gap between sensation and perception.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does "dreams from the pit" refer to in the third stanza?

   • Drunken imaginings caused by the alcohol he uses to forget and be glad
   • Pleasant childhood memories recalled during his long convalescence at home
   • Correct answer: Nightmares and psychological trauma from trench warfare, now called PTSD
   • Religious visions of heaven and hell experienced by soldiers who turned to faith

   "The pit" evokes both the literal trenches and a metaphorical hell. The "dreams" are nightmares — what was then called shell shock and is now recognized as PTSD. Society's answer: "You can drink and forget."

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8. 8

   Question 8. In which 1918 poetry collection was "Does It Matter?" published?

   • The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon
   • Correct answer: Counter-Attack and Other Poems
   • The Old Huntsman and Other Poems
   • Vigils

   "Does It Matter?" appeared in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), widely considered one of the most important volumes of World War I poetry.

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9. 9

   Question 9. How does the poem's structure reinforce its message?

   • Correct answer: Three neat quintains with a sing-song rhyme scheme clash with the horrific subject matter
   • The sonnet form provides a traditional framework for a love poem to one's country
   • Long, sprawling stanzas of varying length convey the overwhelming scale of the war
   • It uses free verse to mirror the chaos and disorder of trench warfare

   The three tidy five-line stanzas with an ABBCA rhyme scheme create a nursery-rhyme quality that deliberately clashes with amputations, blindness, and madness — the cheerful form is itself an act of irony.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Gobble" mean in this story?

    • To hobble or move clumsily and awkwardly because of injury or disability
    • To make a throaty, gurgling noise like a turkey, especially while talking
    • Correct answer: To eat greedily and carelessly, emphasizing thoughtless enjoyment
    • To complain bitterly and repeatedly about unfair or disrespectful treatment

    Sassoon uses "gobble" to convey the thoughtless, greedy appetite of the able-bodied — they devour muffins and eggs without a care while the legless soldier watches.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Each stanza opens with a rhetorical question beginning "Does it matter?"

      Didn't happen

      The first two stanzas begin "Does it matter?" but the third shifts to "Do they matter?" — the change signals a move from physical to psychological wounds.

    • The poem addresses three different war injuries: lost legs, lost sight, and psychological trauma.

      Happened

      Each stanza addresses a different wound, escalating from visible physical injuries to the invisible psychological scars of "dreams from the pit."

    • The speaker genuinely believes that losing one's legs does not matter.

      Didn't happen

      The entire poem is built on verbal irony — the speaker mimics society's dismissive tone, but Sassoon's real message is that these injuries matter enormously.

    • The phrase "people will always be kind" appears in both the first and second stanzas.

      Happened

      This refrain-like repetition underscores that society's hollow kindness is the same regardless of whether the soldier lost legs or sight.

    • The third stanza suggests the soldier should drink to forget his nightmares.

      Happened

      "You can drink and forget and be glad" is Sassoon's bitter mockery of society's actual "solution" for psychological trauma — self-medication rather than genuine help.

    • The poem ends with the comforting promise that the soldier will eventually recover.

      Didn't happen

      The poem ends with "And no one will worry a bit" — the most devastating line, admitting that society simply does not care about the soldier's suffering.

    • Sassoon served as a British officer on the Western Front during World War I.

      Happened

      Sassoon served on the Western Front, was decorated for bravery, and witnessed firsthand the injuries described in the poem.

    • The poem uses a free verse form with no regular rhyme scheme.

      Didn't happen

      The poem uses a regular ABBCA rhyme scheme in neat five-line stanzas. This sing-song quality deliberately clashes with its horrific subject matter.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Why does the poem save psychological trauma ("dreams from the pit") for the final stanza?

    • Correct answer: Because invisible wounds are the easiest for society to dismiss, making them the poem's emotional climax
    • Because Sassoon himself only suffered psychological wounds, not physical ones
    • Because physical injuries were considered more important than mental ones in 1917
    • Because Sassoon wanted to end on a lighter, more hopeful note for the reader

    The poem escalates from visible wounds to invisible ones. Society can at least see a missing leg or blindness — but psychological trauma is easy to deny, dismiss, or medicate away with alcohol. Ending here delivers the poem's most devastating punch.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What was Sassoon's famous 1917 public protest called?

    • The Conscientious Objector's Petition
    • Correct answer: The Soldier's Declaration
    • A Letter from the Front
    • The War Poet's Manifesto

    Sassoon's "Soldier's Declaration" was read aloud in the House of Commons in July 1917. It denounced the war as one of "aggression and conquest" prolonged by those in power — the same spirit of protest that fuels "Does It Matter?"

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