Slessor, Kenneth (1901-1971), was one of Australia’s most important modern poets. He was a leader in bringing modernity into Australian poetry after a strongly nationalistic period. He ignored the traditional Australian subjects of drovers, overlanders, and other characters. He was little concerned with Australian landscape. Slessor’s most frequent theme was the sea, and his sea-poems introduced a new trend in Australian poetry. His philosophy was more modern and universal than that of earlier Australian poets.
Slessor’s best-known poem, “Beach Burial,” ranks among the finest of modern war poems in the English language. It is a tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II (1939-1945) and a reflection on the futility of war. It has faultless structure and powerful, perceptive communication of the poet’s experience. This poem, together with “Sleep,” “South Country,” and “Five Bells,” marks the climax of Slessor’s talent.
Slessor’s work falls into three groups that mark his development as a poet. His earliest poems, typified by the contents of Earth Visitors (1926), are works of fantasy and romance written in a lively, experimental style.
In his second period, Slessor moved from romantic concepts to the cynical and sceptical, toward impressionistic writing and intellectualism. He also came under the influence of the modern American poets T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. In the collection Cuckooz Contrey (1932), there is masterly control of form and a move toward themes related to sensory experience and more modern subjects. The tone is often cynical. Beneath the highly sophisticated wit and original imagery, there is a growing feeling of frustration and bitterness toward death and human vanity. The “Captain Cook” series belongs to this period. It is a blend of realism and romance, easily and naturally presented in highly flexible verse. It also provides an example of Slessor’s obsession with the symbols of time and the sea. He saw time as the sea and humankind as the sailor embarked on a voyage without hope of destination. Of the same period is “Country Towns,” a realistic poem of the Australian countryside, which Slessor describes with ironical but affectionate amusement.
Slessor’s third period, marked by Five Bells (1939) and Poems (1957), shows him in complete control of his poetic techniques and indicates his arrival at realism by way of romanticism and cynicism. This period is considered the height of his development. Slessor emerged as a tragic poet obsessed with death, disillusionment, and despair.
Slessor was born on March 27, 1901, in Orange, New South Wales, and was educated in Sydney. He worked as a journalist and as an editor before becoming a war correspondent during World War II. After the war, he was an editor and literary critic. Slessor died on July 30, 1971.
