THE GLORY OF WOMEN

Considering the title, the reader may think that the poem has been written in order to magnify women. On the other hand, considering Sassoon’s poetry (where irony is used as a weapon), the poet might have written the poem to make fun of them. Going on reading the reader understands that the poet is playing on what makes women proud.

This is conveyed through a semantic and a syntactic juxtaposition. Considering the layout of the poem the reader can find out that there are two stanzas that follow the same structure: in the first part of the stanza (from line 1 to 8 in the first stanza; lines 12-13 in the second one) the poet presents the women’s point of view on the soldiers, while in the second one he brings to light what war really meant.

In addition, in order to highight women’s superficiality, the poet creats a juxtaposition between ‘you’ (women) and ‘we’ (soldiers) that recalls the opposition between who knows what war mean, and who doesn’t. Indeed, the soldier’s actions remind the reader of the horrors of war (‘leave’, ‘wounded’, ‘fight’, ‘killed’..) while the women’s actions recall something positive (‘love’, ‘worship’, ‘listen with delight’, ‘crown’..). Even the action of mourning (line 8) seems to be something good since it is provoked by ‘laurelled memories’. It seems logical that in the second part of the stanza (line 9) the poet uses the espression ‘you can’t believe’ when it presents war, that connotes women’s denial of reality. In the second stanza, the poet underlines how even the German mother (the enemy’s mother) adopts the same behaviour. So Sassoon does not criticize only English women, but he universalizes women’s behaviour in front of war and soldiers. Women magnify war and soldiers, converting negative aspects (translated into words like ‘disgrace’, ‘danger’, ‘hell’, ‘horror’..) into positive ones (‘heroes’, ‘chivalry’, ‘ardours’, ‘laurelled memories’..) and mistake the soldier’s actions for bravery.

THEY

Reading the title the reader may suppose that the subject pronoun ‘they’ (title of the poem) refers to the soldiers. Therefore the poem may present the soldier’s situation. Considering the whole poem, the reader understands that the poet focuses his attention on the soldier’s condition after the war, and so on the changes that brought the war.

As a matter of fact, in the first stanza the poet quotes the bishop (that stands for the religious institution), who giustifies the soldier’s changes. Right from the start the reader understands that there are two levels of analysis: a denotative one that brings to light the giustification of the soldier’s change; and a more deep one that unveils the poet’s critic on the Anglican Church. As it rigards the denotative level, the reder can notice that the Bishop connots the war as a ‘just cause’ and a fight against the enemy (metaphorically personified in the Anti-Christ). On the other hand, a deeper analysis brings to surface how the poet criticizes the Church. For example, the sentence ‘we’re none of us the same’ (line 7), seems to ironically recall the Bishop’s speech; and the following example of the atrocity that brought changes in the soldiers (lines 9-11) are useful in order to materialize the war (while the Bishop uses a metaphorical and abstract language). To make things become more concrete, the poet also chooses to name some soldiers (George, Bill,..) so that the abstract ‘they’ strats to gain an identity. In resposnse of such statement the Bishop can only say ‘the ways of God are strange’: the answer evokes the disorientation of the Bishop. Indeed, while in the first line the Bishop ‘tells us’ (and so he adresses the soldiers), in the last line the Bishop simply ‘says’: this choice unveils the poet’s indifference.