Bruce Dawe And Beach Burial Comparison

Like movies, novels and music, poems are texts that people use to reflect on their lives and experiences. Poems can have an impact on peoples thinking, not only through the things they might say to their readers, but through the discussions that readers have with each other about poems. I agree with this statement and believe that it accurately describes how people can reflect on their lives after reading poems. In addition to this, I also believe that poems can also have an effect on peoples thinking in many ways and through different sources; as the statement above described. Today I will be comparing two poems, both related to war, they are: Weapons Training by Bruce Dawe and Beach Burial, by Kenneth Slessor. Weapons Training, focusses more on the brutal training that people being sent off to fight, have to endure. This process is both extremely, physically and mentally challenging; with trainees having to experience being constantly “bullied” by the drill officer and the arduous training exercises that prepare them for the inevitable transfer to the front line. Beach Burial however, describes the aftermath of a battleground and …show more content…
Kenneth Slessor served for the majority of World War Two, and the poem, Beach Burial, was written to honour the soldiers who fought and died for their country in the war. This poem conveys the fact, that “there are no loyalties in death” and that no matter how hard you fought and how strongly you believed in something in life, it “washes away” in death. This poem is set in the aftermath of a battle, and describes how the dead, are essentially “humbled in death”. In addition to the fact that none of the dead soldiers could be identified and were buried together in burrows; as the poem states “Whether as enemies they fought, Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together, Enlisted on the other