Beach Burial

“Beach Burial” contrasts the efforts of war—to achieve a geopolitical goal, such as acquiring territory or defeating an antagonist—with the anonymity of the dead soldiers and the unfeeling vastness of nature. The poem opens with a juxtaposition that reveals its antiwar views. The “convoys” of soldiers—implying a powerful, organized military force—are arriving ashore, but they arrive “[s]oftly and humbly,” in contrast to the brashness and force of military battle. As the poem progresses, it continues o subvert the reader’s expectations—Slessor replaces a patriotic description of warfare with an elegy for the death of these anonymous sailors. The poem repeatedly emphasizes the sailors’ loss of identity –they are “unknown,” naked, and united by the empty expanse of sand that is their final resting place. This overarching motif of anonymity suggests that war only serves to erode its participants’ individuality.