Lament

Lament by Gillian Clark is a poetry that summarizes the sadness and loss of the people from the gulf war. Lament means 'sad and despair'. Clark has used a lot of language techniques to convey her thoughts on the gulf war. Some techniques was: she uses anaphora of the word 'for' which is used a lot at the start of each line, the use of personification and the description of the war through an animal's point of view. Also, the last line is the most important line of the whole poetry.

The anaphora in this poem is 'for', which is found at the start in nearly every line. She uses the word 'for' a lot because it explains that 'for' is directing it to the soldiers. Examples are 'for the cormorant in his funeral silk', which says its directing to the soldiers for his death. Death relates to funeral and funeral can also be related to silk because silk is a fine leather that can be worn for very special occasions especially for funerals. The word 'for' is used in every start of the line because it explains that the adjectives and nouns in that sentence is 'for'/directing it to the soldiers.

The use of personifications is also used in this poetry. It was mentioned because it is used to personify the feelings of the soldiers injury and death into something that is simple and explanatory. Examples can be 'For the ocean's lap, with its mortal stains.' This line discusses about the oceans 'lap' (human thigh) and with its mortal stains can be the blood of soldiers. To simplify it, the ocean washes with blood of the soldiers towards the beach. Personification is very helpful in poetry because it helps us to compare the feelings of an inanimate object using our point our view.

The description of war using animals point of view was also mentioned in the poetry. Animals were used as a point of view because humans can understand what animals feel like being hurt, an example would be if a small, cute kitten was hurt, then people would feel emotional. Here they have used animals pain to personify a soldier's injury. Such as 'For the green turtle with her pulsing burden.' This example shows us that the green turtle with her heavy back is hurting the turtle. Clark has compared what soldiers feel like when they get hurt and turtle carrying a very heavy backpack.

The last line is the most important line of the whole poetry. It is important because it summarizes the whole poetry. 'For vengeance, and the ashes of language.' This line is quoting that no one can speak for themselves about how they feel about the war. Clark has written this line angrily because of the way she uses word techniques. She is saying that for the innocent people who are getting affected by the war and their words cannot be spoken. She is announcing that she is their only hope and voice. The last line is very important because it is the sentence that tells us what the poetry is all about.

Lament by Gillian Clark is a poetry of sadness about the Gulf War. It summarizes the whole of the Gulf War tragedy. It is also the voice of the innocent people of the Gulf War. Clark has expressed all her feelings on the Gulf War using various language techniques and descriptive words using Lament words which means 'Sad and Despair.' By Brendon Lam

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