beach burial speech

Good morning Ms Kirkcaldie and students; I stand here before you to deliver an analysis of the poem ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor. One of the reasons on why I chose this poem was the fact that it was based on such significant event in history. While my understanding of Australian poetry is not on a high standard, I feel confident in saying that my opinion is more credible than that of a person who has so much as a reasonable understanding. Kenneth Slessor was an Australian poet and journalist, best known for his poems ‘Beach Burial’, a moving tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II because of Australia’s allegiance with Great Britain.
Kenneth Adolf Slessor was a poet, newspaper editor, war correspondent and journalist, was born on 27 March 1901 at Orange, New South Wales, and died with myocardial infarction on the 30th of June 1971 in North Sydney, New South Wales. Ken's father was the person who swayed him to become a poet as he was encouraged by him to love music, food and books, and instilled in him a European sophistication. Kenneth, a voracious reader, began writing poetry as a child and edited a school magazine while at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore). The bulk of Slessor's poetic work was produced before the end of the Second World War and WWII influenced some of his best work such as ‘Five Bells’ and a of course ‘Beach Burial.’
The poet describes his experience as a war correspondent during the major battles near the Egyptian coastal city of El Alamein, on the 23rd of October till 11th of November 1942. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War as it helped revive the morale of the Allies. The 9th Australian Division played a pivotal role in British 8th Army’s battles from July and November 1942 to halt the German and Italian advance towards the Nile and then to decisively defeat and force them to retreat.
Kenneth Slessor, was the Official Australian Correspondent in El Alamein and the Middle East during WWII. The author drew from his own experiences to write Beach Burial, a poem about the aftermath of a battle during WWII. ‘Beach Burial’ is a harrowing elegy about loss of life through war. The rhythm of the poem is constructed in such a way as to confront the reader, and the language used throughout the poem changes from being very soft and comforting, to blunt and shocking. The poem is a realistic and sombre tribute to soldiers of all nations that died in the war. ‘Beach Burial’ illustrates how they are all united by one common enemy; death. It breaks the conventional war poem structure, as it is not a celebration of heroes, and shows no nationalistic or patriotic devotion. Instead, Kenneth Slessor has written about how soldiers lose their identity in war. He has chosen to start the poem lulling the readers into a false sense of calm, and by understating the calamity; we slowly realize he is talking about the dead soldiers, whether it be allies or enemies, being united.
The poem’s first two stanzas include low, soft sounds, such as "softly", "humbly", "convoys" and "rolls", with the rhythm and alliteration of "swaying and wandering", which present calm, soothing tone. However, this soothing calm is more of a grief, as illustrated by the onomatopoeia, in "sobbing and clubbing of the gunfire". The main place or action is sensed as afar, so the washing up of "dead sailors and "tide wood" represents a calm after a storm, wherein the storm is a battle out to sea.
Usually Kenneth uses imagery in most of his poems and as you could imagine he has also used it in ‘Beach Burial’. The title of the poem, 'Beach Burial', has an ironic slant, as beaches are commonly associated with life and pleasure. Instead, the poem consists of the opposite: death and sorrow. Not just that there were also more terms similar to those such as ‘nakedness’ which represented their vulnerability and the word ‘driftwood’ which describes how their bodies have just drifted in. Slessor uses Rhyme to create an intense emotional reaction from the audience through the use of the rhyming pattern ABCB as it creates a sense of flow for the audience. Slessor’s use of half rhyme creates standstills in the poem where the audience are forced to stop and reflect on the realities of war and realize how many men are forgotten after they have died.
The final stanza of the poem is perhaps the most powerful and ironic as it talks about the soldiers. Now that the soldiers are dead, their allegiance is irrelevant. They have passed from one world to the next and must all search for the same absolution. Their race, their country, their objectives are no longer important, because they’ve all passed away. ‘Whether as enemies they fought, Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together,’(this is ironic as the attitude of war and the expectations of soldiers to uphold the cause for which they are fighting, often as enemies; a cause which condemns them to death and inevitably joins them as one.) However, the final line of the poem suggests that the soldiers journey is not over as they are ‘enlisted on the other front’. This haunting conclusion represents them being dead, and that all life is a conflict even after death.

After a great deal of research and study on Kenneth Slessor’s work, I have come to realize why he was one of the greatest poets of all time. Although this poem had no personal significance on me, this poem is still one of the most emotional poems anyone could ever recite. I hope that you understood that the poet was trying to convey that war was a very dangerous place and thousands of people died for their countries. Thank you for your time.