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Beach Burial Kenneth Slessor

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Beach Burial Kenneth Slessor
Kenneth Slessor - 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. Similarly, the poem 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 a 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.

The suffering of the sailors
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