The Full Text of “Lament”
The Full Text of “Lament”
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“Lament” Introduction
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"Lament," by Gillian Clarke, mourns the devastating effect of war on people, animals, and the planet. Published in Clarke's Collected Poems in 1997, it responds to the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, fought between members of NATO (led by the U.S.) and Iraq after Iraq invaded Kuwait. The war ended in Iraq's defeat, and although the NATO powers considered it a successful military operation (in that it put an end to Iraq's invasion), Clarke's poem explores the broader implications of human retribution and violence. The speaker suggests that war has no true winners, only terrible consequences for everyone and everything in its path.
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“Lament” Summary
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This lament is meant for the sea turtles aching to give birth, who, arriving at the shore where they breed each year, will lay their eggs in poisoned nests.
It's for the cormorant draped in funeral cloths, the shiny colors reflected in oil on the sand, the darkness spreading across the sea.
It's for the ocean that has been fatally tarnished. It's for Ahmed, who is unable to cross the border. It's for the soldier burned alive in his uniform.
It's for the people who make the weapons, and for the young rifleman who only signed up because he was lonely, and the farmer's boys, who only cared about getting to hear and play music.
And for the other sea turtles, the ones with curved beaks, and for sea mammals like dugongs and dolphins, and for the whale stunned into silence by the roar of missiles.
It's for the birds, too: the tern, the gull, the birds who wade in water, looking for food. It's for the migrations that are thrown off kilter, and the drawn-out deaths that occur as a result. It's for the hidden sun and the sharp smell of rage.
And it's for the earth that was scorched and the sun that disappeared in the smoke, for the burned ocean and the oil burning in wells. It's for retribution, and for the charred remains of language.
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“Lament” Themes
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The Human and Environmental Costs of War
Gillian Clarke's "Lament" is a song of mourning for those killed in or as a direct result of the Persian Gulf War (fought in 1990-1991 between 39 NATO members and Iraq, which had invaded Kuwait to take control of its oil reserves). As the poem describes the soldiers, civilians, animals, and natural environments that suffered in the conflict, it builds an argument against war in general. No part of life on earth—nor even the earth itself—is safe from the damage war causes.
"Lament" takes the form of a long list of the war's victims, making clear that no one and nothing was immune from its destruction:
- For example, the poem mourns both the "soldier with his uniform of fire" (a reference to a photograph in which an Iraqi soldier burned to death trying to escape his tank), and the young "fusilier" (or rifleman) who only joined up because he was lonely. Those who signed up for the war didn't all know what they were getting into, the poem implies, and war harms even those responsible for perpetrating its horrors. There are no winners when it comes to such immense violence, which burns everyone in its path.
- The poem also mourns "Ahmed at the closed border." "Ahmed" is a common name and, here, is likely a stand-in for the millions of refugees displaced by the violence. War's victims, the poem suggests, are often innocent bystanders.
It's not just people who suffered in the war, either, and "Lament" illustrates how humanity's impulse towards violence is devastating for all of earth's creatures:
- The speaker also mourns for "the green turtle" preparing to lay her "eggs" in a "nest of sickness" and the "cormorant" (a kind of seabird) "in his funeral silk." These images refer to the deliberate oil spill in which Iraqi troops dumped 400 million gallons of U.S. oil into the Persian Gulf, resulting in "a shadow on the sea" and leading to the deaths of many marine animals.
- The speaker also describes "the whale struck dumb by the missile's thunder" and seabirds likewise disoriented and doomed to die from the disruption to their natural habitat.
Finally, the poem emphasizes that the earth itself was torn apart by the war:
- The speaker refers to the "burnt earth," alluding to Iraq's scorched-earth policy, in which they set oil fires to devastate the land when they were forced to pull out of Kuwait.
- The speaker also describes the sun as "veiled" from the smoke of these fires, and the "ocean" as "scalded" by them. The speaker shows that the war decimated every form of life possible; nothing was unscathed.
The poem ends with the speaker mourning "vengeance" itself, as well as "the ashes of language," suggesting that there is simply no way to make sense of, or justify, this scale of violence. "Language," here, might represent truth, meaning, or even our shared humanity—things that the poem argues war utterly decimates.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-21
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Lament”
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Lines 1-3
For the green ...
... nest of sickness.A "lament" is a song or expression of grief. Clarke's poem specifically mourns the grievous damage inflicted on people, animals, and the environment during the Persian Gulf War (fought between NATO and Iraq after Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait). In particular, the poem addresses the effects of one of the worst oil spills in history, which occurred when Iraqi troops dumped 400 million gallons of U.S. oil into the Persian Gulf in an attempt to prevent U.S. troops from landing in Kuwait.
The speaker begins by mourning "the green turtle with her pulsing burden." In other words, this turtle is urgently looking for somewhere to lay her eggs. She is searching for a "breeding ground," the poem continues, before then offering this lament also to the turtle's "eggs laid in their nest of sickness."
Green turtles are a kind of sea turtle; already endangered before the war began, the oil spill impacted their ability to hatch healthy eggs. Beginning the poem with the turtles makes it immediately apparent that although human beings are the ones who wage wars, they aren't the only ones who must live with the consequences. The image of eggs being laid in poisoned sand also suggests the way future generations—whether animal or human—will continue to be shaped by the war's ecological damage. Hissing sibilance ("nest of sickness") helps to emphasize this devastating reality and also contributes to the poem's sorrowful and somber tone.
The repetition of "For" in lines 1 and 3 is an example of anaphora. (The poem will in fact feature this device in every stanza, each of which begins with the phrase "For the.") This repetition emphasizes that this poem is being offered to the victims of the war—and that those victims are many.
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Lines 4-6
For the cormorant ...
... on the sea. -
Lines 7-9
For the ocean's ...
... uniform of fire. -
Lines 10-12
For the gunsmith ...
... for the music. -
Lines 13-15
For the hook-beaked ...
... the missile's thunder. -
Lines 16-18
For the tern, ...
... stink of anger. -
Lines 19-21
For the burnt ...
... ashes of language.
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“Lament” Symbols
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Fire/Burning
The poem returns to images of flames and burning throughout. Much of this fire is literal, but it also represents the way that war symbolically destroys—burns through—everything it touches.
In the third stanza, for example, the speaker mentions a soldier "with his uniform of fire." This is a reference to an actual photograph of an Iraqi soldier covered in flames, but the image takes on broader symbolic significance in the context of the poem. To be dressed in a "uniform of flames" hints that such destruction is the recognizable trademark of war and that war's horrors consume all who fight in it.
The poem then mentions "the burnt earth," "the scalded ocean," and the "blazing well" in its final stanza. These images refer to the environmental damage caused by the war, but, together, they convey war's potential to destroy the entire planet. War even burns "language," the speaker says in the poem's final lines. This implies that war's horror is so great it destroys our capacity to communicate—to create art and culture, and to talk to each other like human beings.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 9: “For the soldier with his uniform of fire.”
- Lines 19-20: “For the burnt earth and the sun put out, / the scalded ocean and the blazing well.”
- Line 21: “the ashes of language.”
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The Nest of Sickness
In the first stanza, the speaker describes a "green turtle" looking for a place to lay her eggs. The breeding ground has been terribly polluted by the fighting and oil spill, however, and the speaker thus mourns the fact that those eggs must be laid in a "nest of sickness."
This polluted "nest" might symbolize the way war's effects linger long into the future, impacting generations to come. Those eggs almost certainly won't hatch or survive; likewise, the poem suggests, people can't grow or truly thrive in a society devastated by conflict.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 3: “For her eggs laid in their nest of sickness.”
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The Ashes of Language
In the poem's final stanza, the speaker laments "the ashes of language." War is so devastating, this phrase implies, that it destroys even our ability to describe its horrors. More broadly, being able to speak is part of what makes us human; language is what allows us to create culture, art, and so on. It's also what would allow us to talk through issues with other nations rather than launching into violence. The image of language dwindled to dead, useless "ashes" thus symbolizes the way that war destroys our humanity itself.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 21: “the ashes of language”
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“Lament” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
Almost every line "Lament" features anaphora. Each stanza begins with the phrase "For the": "For the green turtle," "For the cormorant," "For the ocean's lap," and so on. This insistent repetition never lets readers forget what this poem is: a song of mourning "for" the victims of war. This anaphora makes the poem sound more dramatic, creating a relentless, inescapable rhythm that evokes war's inescapable violence.
Every line except for line 2 also begins with "for" or "the." For example, here's the second stanza:
For the cormorant in his funeral silk,
the veil of iridescence on the sand,
the shadow on the sea.Again, this anaphora fills the poem with a powerful, driving rhythm. The list of war's victims seems to go on and on, and anaphora helps to hammer home just how many different kinds of life were damaged or destroyed and how massive war's reach can be. Anaphora further establishes a sense of connection between civilians, soldiers, land animals, sea animals, and the environment: all of these things, the poem insists, were affected by the fighting.
The use of asyndeton throughout the poem works alongside anaphora to create the sense that this list is never-ending. Without any coordinating conjunctions, it feels as though this list could continue indefinitely. These are simply a few examples of many.
Where anaphora appears in the poem:- Line 1: “For the”
- Line 3: “For”
- Line 4: “For the”
- Line 5: “the”
- Line 6: “the”
- Line 7: “For the”
- Line 8: “For”
- Line 9: “For the”
- Line 10: “For the”
- Line 11: “the”
- Line 12: “the”
- Line 13: “For the”
- Line 14: “the”
- Line 15: “the”
- Line 16: “For the”
- Line 17: “the”
- Line 18: “the”
- Line 19: “For the”
- Line 20: “the”
- Line 21: “For”
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Metaphor
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Consonance
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Imagery
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"Lament" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Cormorant
- Iridescence
- Ahmed
- Gunsmith
- Armourer
- Boy fusilier
- Hook-beaked turtles
- Dugong
- Tern
- Restless wader
- Blazing well
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(Location in poem: Line 4: “For the cormorant in his funeral silk”)
A kind of seabird.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Lament”
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Form
"Lament" consists of 21 lines of free verse arranged into seven tercets, or three-line stanzas. Its structure also uses a great deal of anaphora. The repetition of initial words/phrases (e.g., every stanza begins with "For the") gives the poem a consistency that underscores its purpose: to mourn what's been hurt or lost.
The arrangement also makes the poem feel song-like—slow and orderly, like a funeral march. Although "Lament" can certainly be read as a warning about the cost of war in general, it's also a marker of losses that have already happened, a lament for the consequences of this specific war. The stanzas divide the roll call of losses into short units, giving readers a little room to process the massive damage the speaker is describing.
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Meter
The poem is written in free verse, so it doesn't follow any set meter. The absence of meter makes the language sound more direct (though not necessarily conversational or loose, since the constant use of anaphora gives the poem a song-like structure). And while meter could have contributed to the poem's musicality, it might also have distracted from the stark ugliness of the poem's subject: war and its consequences.
The poem's spare quality adds to the horror of its images, such as a soldier burning to death and animals dying from an oil-poisoned environment. In other words, avoiding meter helps the poem depict war in a fairly blunt, straightforward way, without sounding excessively "poetic."
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem is written in free verse, so it doesn't use a rhyme scheme. Most contemporary poetry is written using free verse, which allows the poet great flexibility and tends to produce a more natural, conversational rhythm. Like meter, a rhyme scheme creates intense musicality. Here, that effect might have distracted from the poem's spare, yet poignant depiction of war and its consequences. As the speaker confronts the stark reality of the Persian Gulf War—including all the destruction and death it caused—the language remains relatively stark to match.
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“Lament” Speaker
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The speaker of "Lament" has no real presence in the poem. By essentially removing the speaker from the poem, Clarke keeps the focus entirely on the victims of the Persian Gulf War. That is, the poem is laser-focused on who this "lament" is for—not who is doing the lamenting.
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“Lament” Setting
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"Lament" takes place in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, which was primarily fought in Kuwait and southern Iraq from 1990-1991. The poem's horrific imagery conveys the war's devastating impact on the environment, which was the result of both the fighting in general and Iraqi troops' deliberate destruction of the region: troops dumped 400 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf and set hundreds of oil wells aflame, creating clouds of smoke so thick they temporarily "put out" the sun in Kuwait.
The poem alludes to all this with its references to birds too slick with oil to fly, a turtle forced to lay her eggs in poisoned sand, and marine mammals "struck dumb" by the boom of missiles. The poem describes how the oil casts a dark "shadow" on the sea, as though the water has been mortally wounded, and makes the "sand" iridescent. As the oil burns atop the Gulf, the water appears "scalded," and oil wells are "blazing" across the land. The poem's setting is thus one of terrifying darkness, chaos, and death.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Lament”
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Literary Context
Born in Cardiff in 1937, poet, playwright, and translator Gillian Clarke is one of the most recognizable names in contemporary Welsh poetry. Clarke spent eight years serving as the National Poet of Wales, from 2008-2016. "Lament" was published in Clarke's 1997 Collected Poems and responds to events of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War. Of the poem, Clarke has written:
War can't be waged without grave damage to every aspect of life. All the details in the poem came from reports in the media. There were newspaper photographs of cormorants covered with oil—'in his funeral silk.' 'The veil of iridescence on the sand' and 'the shadow on the sea' show the spreading stain of oil from bombed oil wells. The burning oil seemed to put the sun out, and poisoned the land and the sea. The 'boy fusilier who joined for the company,' and 'the farmer’s sons, in it for the music,' came from hearing radio interviews with their mothers. The creatures were listed by Friends of the Earth as being at risk of destruction by oil pollution, and 'the soldier in his uniform of fire' was a horrific photograph of a soldier burnt when his tank was bombed. The ashes of language are the death of truth during war.
Clarke names English Romantic poet William Wordsworth, Irish poets William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney, and fellow Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as major influences on her work. She is also friends with fellow contemporary British poets Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, and Imtiaz Dharker.
"Lament" is one of many poems describing the terrible consequences of war on the environment. Other poems in this vein include Linda Hogan's "Song for the Turtles in the Gulf," which also addresses the impact of the Gulf War oil spill, "To Our Land" by Mahmoud Darwish, and "At the Bomb Testing Site" by William Stafford.
Historical Context
In August of 1990, Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait in an effort to expand Iraqi power by taking control of Kuwait's oil reserves. He assumed that surrounding Arab nations would support his invasion, but instead, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait's exiled leaders turned to the United States and NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to condemn Iraq's aggression.
When Hussein refused the UN's demand to withdraw from Kuwait by the middle of January the following year, the Persian Gulf War began. The U.S. led a persistent air offensive, using the latest military technology to quickly eradicate Iraqi resistance. President H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire in February of 1991, which ended the war.
"Lament" foregrounds the effects of the war on the environment, which are still apparent over three decades later. Sea turtles were already considered an endangered species before Iraqi troops, in an effort to keep U.S. troops from landing in Kuwait, intentionally dumped 400 million gallons of U.S. oil into the Gulf. Considered an act of eco-terrorism, this spill had devastating consequences. The Center for Biological Diversity estimates that it resulted in the death or harm of tens of thousands of birds, fish, sea turtles, and marine mammals, while also devastating beaches and marshes.
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More “Lament” Resources
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External Resources
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The Longterm Impact of the Oil Spill — A 2021 Guardian article about the continued ramifications of the oil spill for Kuwait.
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The War Photo No One Would Publish — The story of a famous photograph from the Gulf War (which Clarke references in line 9).
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The Catastrophic Damage From Oil Spills — An article from the Ocean Foundation on the effects of the Persian Gulf oil spill as well as the consequences of oil spills on the environment more generally.
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The Poet's Notes on "Lament" — Gillian Clarke provides some explanation for her poem.
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An Introduction to the Poet's Work — Read a biography of Gillian Clark from Poetry International.
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More About the Persian Gulf War — Check out a brief chronology of the events leading up to the war and learn more about how it was fought.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Gillian Clarke
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