Background and Context
In 1940, Kenneth Slessor became Australia’s official war correspondent first
reporting from Northern Africa.
It was a battle in El Alamein, an obscure railway stop west of Alexandria
that in the course of a few days became known around the world for
turning the fortunes of war. In November 1942, the Allied Eighth Army
broke German and Italian lines to push Rommel’s Axis troops back to
Tunisia and defeat in Africa.
“Before El Alamein we never had a victory; After Alamein we never
had a defeat,” Winston Churchill reflected on the course of World War II.
In the midst of “the blue” was the Australian 9 Division, famous throughout
the British Empire a year earlier for its defence of Tobruk. Now they dug
into slit trenches on low ridges in open ground to hold a line scratched in
the stony sands of Egypt. The Australians were given the hardest part of
the line to smash.”
The Australian dead, buried at the Commonwealth War Cemetery where
they fought: together, and in four plots on the western flank nearest the
front line. “Nine Div” comprised about 10 per cent of the Eighth Army’s
strength, yet accounted for more than one in five of its casualties.
‘There are more Australians buried at El Alamein than there are at
Pozieres in France,” says Peter Stanley, a military social historian who for
more than 20 years worked at the Australian War Memorial. “Yet the
significance of the campaign has always been overshadowed by the war
against the Japanese.”
Eucalypts throw thin shade from a high African sun. Balls of clipped
bougainvillea flower purple. Caretakers paid by the Commonwealth War
Graves Commission tend ornamental succulents, oleander and olives,
planted on bare earth among headstones, overwhelming in num ber and
laid in patterns to confer an order to an otherwise crazy death.
Of the 7970 men buried, 1234 are Australian. Never since have so many
Australians died in such numbers in such a short time. The names of a
further 655 are chiselled in limestone in a cloister honouring Allied
servicemen who died fighting in the Battle for Northern Africa.
Excerpts from SMH Traveller, Saturday, April 25, 2009 by Dugald
Jellie
I. Sound Effects:
Slessor is a master of sound and meaning and believed sound was
inseparable from meaning.
This poem starts with a subdued tone elicited by long slow, soft sounds
(softly, humbly, convoys, sway, wander, under, rolls, foam pluck, shallows,
burrows ) lulling us into a false sense of calm, then by understating the
enormity of the calamity we slowly realise that we are talking about dead
soldiers. As daylight approaches, the sounds get harsher and more
strident because of the emotional stress of burying the dead.
Rhythm:
The recreation of the rocking waves of the ocean in
“swaying and wandering”
And later the echoes of treading on the sand are conveyed by the
meter.
Onomatopoeia:
“sob and clubbing of the gunfire” (a muffled distant sound) — a
news reporter’s distant impression - away from the action. “Sobbing"
expresses deep grief.
Contrast this with the immediacy of Wilfred Owen’s:
“The stuttering rifle’s rapid rattle” - Anthem of a doomed
Youth
“choke” — words stuck in our throats.
Alliteration:
Bury. Burrows, clubbing, sobbing
II. Subject Matter:
As war correspondent, during the North African campaign in the early
forties, Slessor writes sympathetically about the death of young people.
“Beach Burial”, written at El Alamein during the war, significantly, has
similar themes as “Five Bells” - the drowned man - the fading
communications. The name scrawled on the wooden “stake of tidewood” is
itself anonymous: “Unknown Seaman”, the indelible pencil in which it is
written “Wavers and fades”; the men buried in the sand are not only
anonymous but are “joined together” by the sand, whether in life they were
enemies or allies.
III. Themes:
Beach Burial is not a typical war poem; there is no rallying call to arms, no
celebration of heroics, no declamations of patriotic or national piety,
instead we have a sober, sombre evocative but realistic tribute to soldiers
of all nations whether foe or friend who have been united by the common
enemy - death.
The poem decries the tragic, wanton waste of life.
In war soldiers become part of a machine and lose their identity.
Rather than enlist on the front of war against each other, we should
enlist on a common front against the real enemies of
humanity: disease, famine, war - environmental disaster.
Slessor lauds the compassionate action of those who find time to
bury the unidentified fatalities with some dignity.
IV. Poetic Technique:
IMAGES:
Beach Irony of title - beaches usually associated with life and pleasure.
Nakedness - Vulnerability of humans to exposure to elements and life.
Cross -
Symbol of Christ’s suffering and pain of war.
Stake and evil.
connotations of sharp dangerous implements of destruction
Driftwood -
like the bodies have drifted in
Other front - Paradox – they are united at last with the suggestion that all
life is a conflict even after death.
V. LANGUAGE:
convoys —
usually ships - here dead bodies.
dead sailors/seamen – blunt language dehumanises them?
someone —
anonymity of both dead and live soldiers.
Burrows —
meaning
similar to shallows in shape and sound and
Tread
repetitive - Indicates shift In tone - echoes the
monotonous drone of life.
Seaman —
later becomes seamen. Ghostly - echoes of death
Purple —
a royal colour for these kingly men.
Landfall —
a haven after long time at sea.
Other front death
literally new front against Hitler /figuratively - life after
VI. Evaluation
This is one of Slessor’s more mature poems and he exhibits his objective,
impartial, newspaper journalistic reporting style with empathy but little
judgementalism and yet evokes powerful emotions of mourning.