"Lament," by Gillian Clarke, is an anti-war poem. When
written it was directed at the Gulf War in 1991. This poem was inspired by pictures
taken by the media that showed the death and devastation caused by the war raging
originally between Kuwait and Afghanistan.
The language
Clarke uses impactful language that creates disturbing imagery. As the poem deals with
war and death, as suspected, the mood would be somber and sorrowful. In fact, "lament"
is what a person or people do to mourn or grieve.
In
Clarke's poem, her lament is for all of the elements of the regions of the world that
were being damaged or destroyed. Clarke herself describes her use of the word "for" at
the start of all the lines that show who or what her lament is
for.
Some of the imagery is hard to
forget.
For
the ocean's lap with its mortal
stain...
This line refers to
the blood ("mortal stain") floating in the ocean's
waters.
For
the soldier in his uniform of
fire...
This describes the
picture of a soldier who was burned when his tank was
bombed.
The...
shadow on the sea...[and] ...in his funeral
silk
...refer to the oil: it
floats on the water, and the cormorant "in his funeral silk" references the damage the
oil is doing to the wildlife after the bombing of oil
wells.
For the burnt
earth
...refers to land
destroyed by bombing, and
the
sun put out
...describes the
smoke that seems to completely block out the sun.
Clarke's
selection of words and phrases for the poem's images are very effective for supporting
the poem's mood: funeral silk, uniform of fire, the sun put out, nest of
sickness.
This poem draws the mind's eye to the landscape
that surrounds soldiers and the warring countries' occupants
everyday.
The haunting words of the verses created by
Gillian Clarke make it difficult for people to be complacent about things that cannot be
seen but are very real—things that should be very important to
everyone.
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