Beach Burial and Disabled

Poetry allows one’s imagination or experiences to be expressed through words or language choices. During the wartimes, poetry was extremely popular as people were able to express their thoughts on war through words. War poetry often delivers a sombre reminder to the sacrifice that comes along with wars, and that it is meaningless and wasteful of people’s lives. Wars are often portrayed as futile events that affect people both physically and emotionally. The poems ‘Beach Burial’ by Kenneth Slessor and ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen share the same subject matter of war and consists of both similar and different ideas. ‘Beach Burial’ reflects mainly the futility of war and ‘Disabled’ describes a man who regrets enlisting in the army and reminisces over his past. Through the use of poetic techniques, significant ideas on war have been revealed in both the poems. In ‘Beach Burial’, the idea that war is meaningless and wasteful of people’s lives is evident and in ‘Disabled’, the idea that war is meaningless and affects people both physically and emotionally is presented.
‘Beach Burial’, written by Kenneth Slessor is an anti-war poem depicting war as a tragic and meaningless event. In the poem, Slessor mainly focuses on the cruel and pitiful burial of the sailors. Throughout the poem, Slessor uses several poetic techniques to describe the meaningless of war. In the first line of the poem, readers are first introduced to what is seemingly peaceful with the lines “softly and humbly to the gulf of Arabs”. Slessor effectively incorporates imagery into “convoys of dead sailors come”, referring to the sway and motion of the dead sailors as they are slowly pushed towards the shore. The word choice suggests that there was a huge number of men involved, emphasizing the futility of war. In the lines “with such bewildered pity, the words choke as they begin” relates to how hard it was for many to deal with the loss of lives. The use of personification suggests one’s inability to cope...