Kenneth Slessor
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Kenneth Slessor (March 27 1901–July 30 1971) was born in Orange, New South Wales, in 1901. He made his living as a newspaper journalist mostly for the Sydney Sun, and was a war correspondent during the Second World War. At the same time, he became notable as one of Australia's leading poets, and for the absorption of modernist infuences into Australian poetry. He died in 1971.
The bulk of Slessor's poetic work was produced prior to the Second World War, and his "Five Bells" remains probably the best known poem relating to Sydney harbour. Another of his best known poems, "Beach Burial" is a tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II.
Slessor was friends with Hugh McCrae and Jack Lindsay.
Poetry
The final verse of "Beach Burial":
- "Dead seamen, gone in search of the same landfall,
- Whether as enemies they fought,
- Or fought with us, or neither; the sand joins them together,
- Enlisted on the other front."
Bibliography
- Country Towns (1920)
- Earth Visitors (1926)
- A Bushranger (1930)
- Cuckooz Contrey (1932)
- Five Bells (1939)
- Beach Burial (1944)
- One Hundred Poems (1944)
- Poems (1957)
External links
- [poemhunter.com] contains a number of his poems
- John Tranter has written a [profile of Slessor]
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