Read the poem and answer the questions that follow:
Siegfried Sassoon
Jack fell as he’d have wished,’ the mother said,
And folded up the letter that she’d read.
`The Colonel writes so nicely.’ Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.’ Then her face was bowed.
Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He’d told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he’d been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how ‘Jack’, cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he’d tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except for that lonely woman with white hair.
Choose the correct alternatives from the options given below:
(a) The colonel had written to Jack’s mother to
(i) praise her son (ii) inform her of her son’s death
(iii) praise all the dead soldier’s (iv) all the above
(b) The mother’s face was ‘bowed’ down because
(i) She was exhausted
(ii) She was overwhelmed with grief
(iii) She was delighted at her son’s exploits at the battlefield
(iv)None of the above
Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:
(c) Had Jack really fallen ‘as he’d have wished’?
(d) What had the officer come to meet Jack’s mother?
(e) Why had the officer lied to the mother?
(f) How was the mother affected by the meeting with the officer?
(g) What was ironical about Jack’s death?
(h) What had Jack’s last wish been?
Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i)trembled (stanza 1)
(ii) ditch/dugout (stanza 3)
ANSWERS:-
(a) (ii) (iv)
(b) (ii)
(c) The last stanza says that Jack was scared (“cold-footed”). He had panicked and tried to get sent home. This tells us that Jack did not want to stay and fight, so he could not have wanted to “fall” through such a violent death.
(d) The officer had come to meet Jack’s mother to deliver the colonel’s letter informing her of Jack’s death.
(e) The officer had told the mother some “gallant lies” so that she would think that her son was a courageous soldier who died heroically. He knew that these lies would give the old mother comfort for the rest of her life.
(f) The mother took great comfort from meeting with the soldier. The soldier’s lies about her so being a hero made her weak eyes brim with joy” and they shone with “gentle triumph.”
(g) The irony about Jack’s death is that while he unwillingly died a violent death (“blown to small bits”), it is described to his mother as an act of courage — something that Jack would have wanted. While the soldier tells Jack’s mother lies that make her son sound “glorious,” he remembers Jack as a “cold-footed, useless swine.”
(h) The last stanza tells us that Jack had tried to get sent home from the ar. That, perhaps, had been his last wish. (Deduction).
(i) Quavered.
(j) Trench.
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