Beach Burial Explained

"Beach Burial"
Author:Kenneth Slessor
Written:1944
First:Southerly
Country:Australia
Language:English
Publication Date:1944
Lines:21

"Beach Burial" (1944) is a poem by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor.[1]

It was originally published in Southerly journal in 1944, and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.

The poem was written around the time of the battle of El Alamein in 1942 while Slessor was a war correspondent. It reflects his experience of seeing dead seamen being pulled from the surf and buried in the sand in graves marked with a cross bearing the words "Unknown Seaman".

Critical reception

The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature called it a "fine poem which reflects the futility of war, it expresses the bewildered pity of battle-hardened troops as they perform rough and ready but deeply-tender last rites over the sodden, nameless corpses."[2]

The Oxford Literary History of Australia stated that the poem was "notable for its formal experimentation with assonance, echo and half-rhyme."[3]

In his commentary on the poem in 60 Classic Australian Poems editor Geoff Page noted that this "is not a poem of strident assertion; it is a poem of 'perplexity', of 'bewildered pity, rather than a song of praise to the 'cause'". He concluded that "poems rarely come more perfect than this one."[4]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in Southerly it was reprinted as follows:

The poem has also been translated into Greek (1986), Indonesian (1991), and Arabic (1999).

Notes

You can read the full text of the poem in The Age, 29 October 1966, p23 and also on the "All Poetry" website.[33]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Austlit — "Beach Burial" by Kenneth Slessor . Austlit. 23 September 2024.
  2. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature edited by Wilde, Hooton and Andrews, 2nd edition, p79
  3. The Oxford Literary History of Australia edited by Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Strauss, 1st edition, p220
  4. 60 Classic Australian Poems edited by Geoff Page, University of NSW Press, 2009, p..
  5. Web site: Australian Poetry 1944. National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  6. Web site: An Anthology of Australian Verse (George Mackaness) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  7. Web site: A Book of Australian Verse (OUP) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  8. Web site: Poems (A&R) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  9. Web site: The Penguin Book of Australian Verse (Penguin) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  10. Web site: Modern Australian Verse (A&R) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  11. Web site: "Beach Burial" . The Age, 29 October 1966, p23. 23 September 2024. .
  12. Web site: The Penguin Book of Australian Verse (Penguin) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  13. Web site: Australian Verse from 1805 : A Continuum (Rigby) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  14. Web site: The Golden Apples of the Sun : Twentieth Century Australian Poetry (MUP) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  15. Web site: The Collins Book of Australian Poetry (Collins) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  16. Web site: Clubbing of the Gunfire : 101 Australian War Poems (MUP) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  17. Web site: My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years (Lansdowne) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  18. Web site: My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years (Lothian) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  19. Web site: Two Centuries of Australian Poetry (OUP) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  20. Web site: Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse (Heinemann, 1988) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  21. Web site: The Sea Poems of Kenneth Slessor (Brindabella) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  22. Web site: The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry (Penguin) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  23. Web site: The Faber Book of Modern Australian Verse (Faber) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  24. Web site: Australian Poetry in the Twentieth Century (Heinemann) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  25. Web site: Fivefathers : Five Australian Poets of the Pre-Academic Era (Carcanet) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  26. Web site: The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse (SL of NSW Press) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  27. Web site: Australian Verse : An Oxford Anthology (OUP) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  28. Web site: The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry (Penguin) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  29. Web site: 60 Classic Australian Poems (UNSW) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  30. Web site: Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (A&U) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  31. Web site: The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry (P&W) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  32. Web site: Australian Poetry Since 1788 (UNSW Press) . National Library of Australia. 23 September 2024.
  33. Web site: "Beach Burial by Kenneth Slessor" . All Poetry. 23 September 2024.