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Does It Matter?

Siegfried Sassoon

poetry.com

Does it matter?-losing your legs?
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.
Does it matter?-losing you 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 in the pit?
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you’re mad;
For they know that you've fought for your country,
And no one will worry a bit.

Personal Notes:

07-17-2025

I read this in a collection of WWI Poetry. Obviously it's about war in general and that Great One in specific, about how the sacrifices of soldiers get ignored and hidden behind a veneer of nationalism. But I also read a lot of me into it.

I first encountered this poem after I'd lost the use of my eye. I was at work. We'd been having mechanical issues, I hadn't complained loud enough, and a pipe burst and hit me in the eye. I made a whole video about the recovery process, but that context is important. I'm lucky I didn't lose the whole eye, even if it hardly works now. I'm lucky I'm still able to drive, and it certainly looks like I have all the function I did before. But like, I'm still missing part of my body. The eye I lost used to be my good eye and my dominant eye, so even though I've lived in this house for years now, I still can't walk around it without my glasses. I still can't cap a pen without extreme care, I can't adjust my iPod's ribbon cables like I could before. I've always had eyes sensitive to the light, but I can't go outside without massive sunglasses that go over my own, and my lost eye no longer dilates so if I don't it will hurt.

Does it matter?-losing my sight?
They say I'm lucky not to be totally blind;
As I sit on the terrace remembering
My eye now forced to turn away from the light.
--
They know that I've fought for my economy,
And no one will worry a bit.