SLESSOR, KENNETH

born March 27, 1901, Orange, N.S.W., Australia died July 30, 1971, Sydney Australian poet and journalist best known for his poem Beach Burial, a moving tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II. Slessor became a reporter for the Sydney Sun at the age of 19, was editor of the journal Smith's Weekly for a time, and then was a World War II correspondent (194044). He continued as an editor and literary critic after the war. His earliest poetry, collected in Earth Visitors (1926), is characterized by gaiety and technical experimentation. The influence of the poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound is evident in the sophisticated Cuckooz Country (1932). Five Bells: XX Poems (1939) and Poems (1957) demonstrate the poet's mature mastery of technique.