Sassoon's Use of Irony in Glory of Women

Sassoon's Use of Irony in Glory of Women

The role of women during the Great War has been portrayed in many different

ways in literature. They are seen as factory workers, nurses who saved soldierís lives,

sweethearts and relatives to label just a few. In "Glory of Women, Siegfried Sassoon

makes ample use of irony within the structure and the content in order to portray his view

of the role of the young, working, British woman during this time period.

Sassoon's use of irony can first be seen in the structure of the poem itself. A

superficial glance at the poem shows that it is written in fourteen lines, making it appear as

a sonnet. A closer look at the structure, however, shows that "Glory of Women" is in the

form of both the English and the Italian sonnet, creating a completely unique sonnet

altogether. There is an octet, which a closer look shows is really two quatrains, and a

sestet which are distinguished by a subtle change in mood and characterize the Italian

sonnet. The two quatrains, a characteristic of the English sonnet that can be identifi...