Glory of Women by Siegfried Sassoon

Analysis:

This poem might glorify women, but it is probably no like to have such expectation after the reading of They.

As a matter of fact, Sassoon uses irony as a weapon. The structure of the poem is a sonnet. The intelligent reader know that sonnet ascribes loving feelings to the subject. On the contrary, right from the first lines the reader understands the speaking voice has a male point of view, while the addressee is referring to women. The distance between the two points of view is reinforced by the insistent repetition of the pronoun “you” connected to the women and the position of the male speaking voice “us”. The poem, instead of presenting women in positive, rather underlines women’s luck to stay home and not to die and fight in the war. In particular from line 9 to 11, the male speaking voice pointed out the naivety of women. Women wanted their men out there fighting and being heroic without considering what this actually did to them. They did not understand what it was like to be on the front line and they would act like it was not a big deal to kill. Women are trying to be nationalists, but they have no idea what nationalism really means.

Despite Sassoon’s presentation of the role of women during the war, the intelligent reader knows the efforts and the importance of the female figure during the conflict. Moreover, at home women are not concerning themselves with the frivolities of life, but they work hard to maintain the family, to provide food, to raise children and sometimes they work as nurse at the frontline.