Kenneth Slessor
Source: Web (poemanalysis.com)
Literature & Poetry • Historical Archive • 🇦🇺 Australia • 2 views

Kenneth Slessor 🇦🇺

Kenneth Adolphe Schloesser (Known as "Kenneth Slessor")
Modernist Poet, War Correspondent, Journalist, Author of 'Five Bells'
Born 1901-03-27 🇦🇺 Orange, New South Wales, Australia
Passed Away 1971-06-30 Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia
Lifespan 70 years old
2 views
Notice / Correction
"Time that is moved by little fidget wheels is not my Time, the flood that wraps us round."

Archival Overview

Pioneering modernist poet and official World War II war correspondent whose haunting Sydney Harbour elegy 'Five Bells' is celebrated as a masterpiece of Australian modernist verse.

Biographical Record

Kenneth Slessor was born on March 27, 1901, in Orange, New South Wales. Working as a leading journalist for The Sun and Smith's Weekly, Slessor spearheaded the introduction of modernist techniques, vivid imagery, and free rhythms into Australian poetry during the 1920s and 1930s.

His 1939 poem 'Five Bells', an elegy for his artist friend Joe Lynch who drowned in Sydney Harbour, is regarded as one of the finest elegies in English literature, famously inspiring John Olsen's monumental Sydney Opera House mural. During World War II, Slessor was Australia's official war correspondent, recording the campaigns in Greece, Syria, El Alamein, and New Guinea.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens
North Ryde, Sydney, Australia
GPS: -33.7852, 151.1402
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