Kenneth Slessor's Beach Burial

A detailed Summary of Kenneth Slessor's Beach Burial


Similar in theme and tone to Bruce Dawe's 'Homecoming', Kenneth Slessor's 'Beach Burial' describes the burial process during war, and allows the reader to compare how vastly different this process is to a burial during peace time. The poem presents the poet's attitudes concerning war - the insignificance and unnecessary sacrifice - through the use of language, symbolism, imagery and rhyme.

In the first stanza, Slessor explains how the bodies of many dead seamen have been helplessly floating around in the water, before rolling into the shore. He effectively uses part-rhyme: come and foam, under and wander. Sound repetition is also used in the opening stanza as it is again continuously throughout the poem: gunfire and under, come and humbly. These word combinations add to the sombre tone of the introductory stanza by making the stanza flow smoothly, as opposed to harshly and


The 2nd and 3rd stanzas go on to explain the mass burials of soldiers - no longer individuals, or enemies fighting one another. Nothing can distinguish one man from another as they are buried beneath 'sand upon their nakedness'. Being naked is symbolic - the men have been stripped of their uniqueness and nothing can be done to differentiate John from Peter... the men are all buried as one, having been 'plucked from the shadows and buried in the burrows'. Sound repetition is used once again: between and seems, shallows and burrows.

Softly and humbly to the Gulf of Arabs



Some common words found in the essay are:
John Peter, Gulf Arabs, Kenneth Slessor's, Slessor Similar, dead soldiers, Bruce Dawe's, sound repetition, 'beach burial', 3rd stanza, convoys dead,

Approximate Word count = 618
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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