William Street Kenneth Slessor Analysis

Kenneth Slessor was a well known Australian poet whom was also an official correspondent during the second World War. Slessor was born on the 27th of March 1901 in Orange, New South Wales. Kenneth Slessor was one of Australia's leading poets. He was notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences into the Australian poetry. William Street and Beach Burial are the two poems that contain such techniques which shape significant ideas in Slessor’s poetry.

William Street is a poem which is set in Sydney during 1935. It was the time in which Australia was going through the great depression. At this point, poverty was a major factor affecting the majority of the Australian society. The poem simply shows the different and unique perspectives of that time period. William Street is considered to be a modernist poem. Modernism is a way of expressing new ideas and emotions, leading to experimental and avant-garde trends in the 20th century. Modernist poets tend to be cosmopolitan and just like Slessor they often expressed feelings such as urban and cultural dislocation. The poverty which was the result of the great depression and the urbanisation setting of the poem makes it a highly modernist poem. This particular poem by Slessor is considered to be unique in comparison to other modernist poems as Slessor describes how much he hates the
An elegy is a lyrical poem which expresses a poets grief or sense of loss. Through Slessors precise use of rhythm and imagery he creates a negative image about war making it an anti-war poem. In the poem a slight theme of continuity is seen “ the convoys of dead sailors come” is an example of this as it indicates how the soldiers who died left the same way they came, continuing their cycle of life. The entire poem is seen to serve as an onomatopoeia to reflect the constant movement of waves