Beach Burial Poem Analysis

‘Weapons Training’ by Bruce Dawe and ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor, are two poems that share many similarities as well as several differences. The two poems are about war, with both poets sharing their personal view on War with both Australian poets having been enlisted in the Australian army. Although the two poems are about different wars with ‘Weapons Training’ being about the Vietnam War and ‘Beach Burial’ being about El Alamein they share several similarities. The two poems have similar themes about War being useless and dehumanising, with both poems having a strong anti-war theme. The tone and mood of the poems are very different with Dawe’s using a very aggressive feeling to his poem will Slessor has a gentler, sombre feeling to

Wilfred Owens poem “Dulce et Decorum est” and Bruce Dawe’s poem “Homecoming” are poems from different wars, however both highlight the indignity of war. Owen’s poem is broken up into three sections, where he expresses the torture soldiers suffer

Bruce Dawe is an Australian poet who expressed his anti-war standpoint and frustration with society and individuals through his poetry. He had experience in a wide range of occupations and wrote his poetry during the late 60’s and early 70’s in order to convey his thoughts on these issues to a broader audience. This point of view is especially evident in his poem “Homecoming” which documents the grief and frustration experienced post-war and “Weapons training” that focusses on a satirical re-telling of the orders of a drill sergeant.

The idea of loss is explored diversely in the poems ‘Conscript’ by FA Horn and ‘The Photograph’ by Peter Kocan. Where ‘Conscript’ conveys the loss of a soldier on the battlefields of World War II and his physical demise, ‘The Photograph’ conveys the loss of a World War I Australian soldier and the grief his family endures with the passing of time. Although the two poems are set in different wars, the poets similarly reinforce the devastation, as well as the emotional and physical impact associated with war.

The soldiers who had attended the war were shown to have died brutally, like “cattle”, yet when reaching the home front, it is seen that they are laid to rest in a much more civil and dignified manner. The concept of this can be seen as an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem, with the battle front seen as a world filled with violence, fear and destruction, where as the home front is perceived as a place marked by order and ritual, a civilized world. The second sonnet opens with “What candles may be held to speed them all?”, invoking a more softer and compassionate tone towards the audience, more specifically through Owen’s use of a rhetorical question. It captures the readers’ attention, engaging them to feel empathetic and notice the shift of energy from anger and bitterness to a sadder and more somber tone. Owen’s use of descriptive language, as simple as it seems, such as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ provokes the audience to view the horrors of the war as if they had been placed onto children, because in reality the ‘men; who had signed themselves into war to fight in glory for their country had really only just been boys themselves.

In Kenneth Slessor’s 1942 poem ‘Beach Burial’ he also comments about survival in war and the power in distinctively visual ways through particular words. He relies upon adjectives, personification and the use of imagery to describe the suffering.

Burial Rites, a novel written by Hannah Kent is heavily based on story telling and the effect it has. Through the course of the novel, readers observe the significance story telling has for both the individual and the community. For an individual story telling can make the speaker feel empowered whereas for the community story telling’s main significance is the entertainment it provides. Since Kent’s purpose of Burial Rites is to tell the life journey of Agnes Magnusdottir in an ambiguous light, story telling also becomes important for the reader.

Wilfred Owen can be considered as one of the finest war poets of all times. His war poems, a collection of works composed between January 1917, when he was first sent to the Western Front, and November 1918, when he was killed in action, use a variety of poetic techniques to allow the reader to empathise with his world, situation, emotions and thoughts. The sonnet form, para-rhymes, ironic titles, voice, and various imagery used by Owen grasp the prominent central idea of the complete futility of war as well as explore underlying themes such as the massive waste of young lives, the horrors of war, the hopelessness of war and the loss of religion. These can be seen in the three poems, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and

The poem is written to represent all soldiers, regardless of allegiance, and shows that in death we are all joined as one, ‘the sand joins them together'. It does not boast about victory but rather the irony that no matter their race or country they all end up ‘on the other front'. Again the lines 17 and 18 really emphasize that in death the countries the soldiers were fighting for are irrelevant. Although the poem has a worldview, an Australian perspective is brought out through the ‘sway and wander' and ‘waves and fades' recreation of the sea. Kenneth Slessor is presenting a less optimistic view of the war perspective in Australia, one that does not celebrate the call to

There is a split in all countries when talking about war being wasteful as half of the people believe war was an amazing experience for the soldiers and the other half believe war was a complete waste of time and should never had happened. The author of Dulce Et Decorum, Wilfred Owen and the author of Homecoming, Bruce Dawe use similar poetic devices throughout their poems to give the audience a strong visualization what it was like in the trenches for the soldiers and the impact war had on the soldiers, their families and their community. The main theme within both poems, ‘war is waste’, is presented through the various techniques Dawe and Owen used.

It is revealed in the emotional, physical and spiritual discoveries that the confronting reflection of our self generates an acceptance of the human experiences. The deliberate discovery of place allow readers to explore the fresh and intensely meaningful ways of the transformation of our perception of the natural environment. The poems ‘Late Ferry’ and ‘The Meatworks’ by Robert Gray are the two of many in his anthology and ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor use discoveries to reveal their meanings. The poems contain a range of techniques and feature to convey the ideas of the poets. Gray allow readers to explore confronting discoveries to generate acceptance of the human experiences.

War is not heroic. War is sickness, struggle, and death. This is the message that poet and World War I soldier Wilfred Owen wanted to instill in his people back home. Those back home talked of glory and national pride and rooted for their soldiers, however, they were unaware of the horrors these soldiers witnessed and experienced. The soldiers and their people back home were not only separated by distance but by mental barriers, which Owen showcases in his poetry. Owen’s use of personification in “Anthem for Doomed Youth” degrades the soldiers to objects to show how the war dehumanized them to intentionally create a disconnect between the audience and the soldiers.

Poems using strong poetic technique and devices are able to create a wide range of emotions from the readers. Wilfred Owen’s poetry effectively uses these poetic techniques and devices to not only create unsettling images about war but to provide his opinion about war itself with the use of themes within his poem. The use of these themes explored Owen’s ideas on the futility of war and can be seen in the poems: Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility and The Next War. The poems provide unsettling images and belief of war through the treatment of death, barbaric nature of war and the futility of war.

Throughout Wilfred Owen’s collection of poems, he unmasks the harsh tragedy of war through the events he experienced. His poems indulge and grasp readers to feel the pain of his words and develop some idea on the tragedy during the war. Tragedy was a common feature during the war, as innocent boys and men had their lives taken away from them in a gunshot. The sad truth of the war that most of the people who experienced and lived during the tragic time, still bare the horrifying images that still live with them now. Owen’s poems give the reader insight to this pain, and help unmask the tragedy of war.

How is the theme of war portrayed through imagery in the poems Lament by Gillian Clarke and War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy?