Beach Burial written by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor is a harrowing elegy which mourns the vast destruction of war. Grasping a thorough understanding of the historical context of the poem is imperative in order to recognize the purpose and impact of the poem. The poem demonstrates a powerful critique of the nature of war through the exploration of ideas such as the anonymity of soldier’s deaths and how it is death that delivers soldier’s from the horrors of war. The success of the poem can be directly affiliated with Slessor’s careful application of various poetic devices and his ability to confront and thus metamorphose the beliefs of patriotic civilians.
Written in 1944, Beach Burial tributes soldiers who died near El Alamein in World …show more content…
In the opening of the poem, Slessor uses aural imagery to emphasize the helplessness of soldiers through the development of a soft, lulling tone. This is evident through the application of assonance and sibilance in “softly” and “humbly” and consonance of the ‘w’ in “sway and wander in the waters far under”. This provides a sense of fluidity; thus evoking a false sense of calm to readers through the projection of a lamenting and grieving tone. Disrupting the fluency of the softness, Slessor introduces harsh sounds in the line ‘the conveys of dead sailors come’ whereby he emphasizes the scale of death by allowing the audience to comprehend how soldiers were dehumanized. Additionally, Slessor suggests that the dead soldier’s names on makeshift tombstone were, “written with such perplexity, with such bewildered pity,”. Slessor’s use of scesis onomaton in this phrase repeats the confused sentiments to baffle readers and hence accentuate the abnormality and wastefulness of the soldier’s deaths. Slessor refers to the soldiers’ as “unknown seamen [;]” their graves inscribed with a “ghostly pencil”, metaphorically suggesting that they remain anonymous in their sacrifice and the value of their lives is diminishing much like their names fade and become unknown. Similarly, through the use of the simile “breath of… wet season… washed their …show more content…
Through the absence of individual identity within this caesura, the audience lack a sentimental connection to the soldiers’ death, disconcerting their human moral. Through use of poetic devices, Slessor justifies the way in which soldiers’ lives were ignored; successfully evoking a sympathetic response from readers. Several stylistic devices are applied by Slessor to explore the soldier’s loss of dignity, and the idea that it is death that delivers them from the horrors of war. The title of the poem, “beach burial” is a paradox which ironically creates an image of the beach being a graveyard for soldiers, when usually the beach is associated with images of life and bliss. Hence, Slessor is able to stress to the reader the severity of the poem prior to reading it by emphasizing the prominence of death. Slessor further establishes a stark contrast in tone from the first half of the poem through the application of onomatopoeia in, “the sob and clubbing of the gunfire”. Conjuring images of violence and death, the harsh sounds in this phrase allow the reader to comprehend how it is the death from gunfire which relieves the soldiers from the futility of war. Slessor introduces a symbol through the phrase ‘and tread the sand
Written in 1944, Beach Burial tributes soldiers who died near El Alamein in World …show more content…
In the opening of the poem, Slessor uses aural imagery to emphasize the helplessness of soldiers through the development of a soft, lulling tone. This is evident through the application of assonance and sibilance in “softly” and “humbly” and consonance of the ‘w’ in “sway and wander in the waters far under”. This provides a sense of fluidity; thus evoking a false sense of calm to readers through the projection of a lamenting and grieving tone. Disrupting the fluency of the softness, Slessor introduces harsh sounds in the line ‘the conveys of dead sailors come’ whereby he emphasizes the scale of death by allowing the audience to comprehend how soldiers were dehumanized. Additionally, Slessor suggests that the dead soldier’s names on makeshift tombstone were, “written with such perplexity, with such bewildered pity,”. Slessor’s use of scesis onomaton in this phrase repeats the confused sentiments to baffle readers and hence accentuate the abnormality and wastefulness of the soldier’s deaths. Slessor refers to the soldiers’ as “unknown seamen [;]” their graves inscribed with a “ghostly pencil”, metaphorically suggesting that they remain anonymous in their sacrifice and the value of their lives is diminishing much like their names fade and become unknown. Similarly, through the use of the simile “breath of… wet season… washed their …show more content…
Through the absence of individual identity within this caesura, the audience lack a sentimental connection to the soldiers’ death, disconcerting their human moral. Through use of poetic devices, Slessor justifies the way in which soldiers’ lives were ignored; successfully evoking a sympathetic response from readers. Several stylistic devices are applied by Slessor to explore the soldier’s loss of dignity, and the idea that it is death that delivers them from the horrors of war. The title of the poem, “beach burial” is a paradox which ironically creates an image of the beach being a graveyard for soldiers, when usually the beach is associated with images of life and bliss. Hence, Slessor is able to stress to the reader the severity of the poem prior to reading it by emphasizing the prominence of death. Slessor further establishes a stark contrast in tone from the first half of the poem through the application of onomatopoeia in, “the sob and clubbing of the gunfire”. Conjuring images of violence and death, the harsh sounds in this phrase allow the reader to comprehend how it is the death from gunfire which relieves the soldiers from the futility of war. Slessor introduces a symbol through the phrase ‘and tread the sand