Siegfried Loraine, Sassoon - Glory of women

You love us when we’re heroes, home on leave, A

Or wounded in a mentionable place. B

You worship decorations; you believe A

That chivalry redeems the war’s disgrace. B

You make us shells. You listen with delight, C

By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled. D

You crown our distant ardors while we fight, C

And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed. D

You can’t believe that British troops ‘retire’ E

When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run, F

Trampling the terrible corpses—blind with blood. G

O German mother dreaming by the fire, E

While you are knitting socks to send your son F

His face is trodden deeper in the mud. G

Il ruolo delle donne

The poem is about the importance of women for the soldiers. The speakers are the soldier who talk about their wives or their girlfriends. The poet says that women bear up their heroes when they are fighting.
The poem is continuous and it isn’t split into stanzas. He’s made up of fourteen lines of different length. Each line begins with a capital letter. There is a rhyme scheme (ABAB – CDCD – EFGEFG). There is alliteration “blind with blood” (line 11). There are three run-on-lines “you believe // that chivalry redeems the war’s disgrace” (lines 3-4) “You can’t believe that British troops ‘retire’ // When hell’s last horror breaks them” (lines 9-10) and “While you are knitting socks to send your son // His face is trodden deeper in the mud” (lines 13-14) .

Apprezzamento personale

All in all, I love this poem because I find it in-depth and because I find the message of love and the prayer to the German mother really sincere and touching.