"Beach Burial" is a poem by Kenneth Slessor that details a scene from a World War II battle in Egypt that Slessor witnessed in 1942. Slessor worked as a war correspondent during World War II, which offered him an opportunity to see the world beyond his homeland in Australia. Covering the war took him to Greece, New Guinea, and North Africa. It was while stationed in the latter that he is believed to have drawn the inspiration for the Egyptian coastline setting of “Beach Burial.” The specific engagement which is considered to be portrayed in the poem’s striking imagery is the Battle of El Alamein, which was an Allied engagement in northern Africa during World War II. From July to September 1942, Slessor had traveled with the Ninth Australian Division, which fought to gain territory near the Egyptian city of El Alamein. One battle during this campaign, which occurred on July 27, 1942, resulted in virtually the entire battalion becoming killed or captured. This horrific experience is the basis of the haunting imagery of death and total devastation captured in “Beach Burial.”
It was not until 1944 that Slessor published his poem in the collection originally titled One Hundred Poems. “Beach Burial” is often discussed alongside Slessor’s best-known poem, “Five Bells,” which is also about World War II and draws from his experience as a correspondent. Despite these works' notoriety, war was only a minor theme in Slessor’s work, as these were the only poems he published on the topic. Other prominent themes in his body of work include a celebration of nature, reflections on time and memory, and the symbol of the sea—all of which are present to varying degrees in “Beach Burial.” Slessor is much more well-known in Australia than he is in the rest of the world, but “Beach Burial” has gone on to stake a place among the most anthologized and studied poetry produced as a result of the North African campaigns that took place during World War II.
A quasi-elegy composed of five quatrains, “Beach Burial” presents a somber and moving reflection on the human consequences of geopolitical conflicts. Reflecting Slessor’s personal experience as a journalist who had to document and witness the horrors of war, the text invites readers to reflect on the realities of military conflict. These themes also connect to Slessor’s collection One Hundred Poems, which explores themes of time, memory, and mortality.
