Lament by Gillian Clarke: GCSE

Lament by Gillian Clarke (1992)

Listen to the poet read her poem here

For the green turtle with her pulsing burden,
in search of the breeding ground.
For her eggs laid in their nest of sickness.

For the cormorant in his funeral silk,
the veil of iridescence on the sand,
the shadow on the sea.

For the ocean’s lap with its mortal stain.
For Ahmed at the closed border.
For the soldier with his uniform of fire.

For the gunsmith and the armourer,
the boy fusilier who joined for the company,
the farmer’s sons, in it for the music.

For the hook-beaked turtles,
the dugong and the dolphin,
the whale struck dumb by the missile’s thunder.

For the tern, the gull and the restless wader,
the long migrations and the slow dying,
the veiled sun and the stink of anger.

For the burnt earth and the sun put out,
the scalded ocean and the blazing well.
For vengeance, and the ashes of language.

Gillian Clarke's own comments on Lament from her website

"‘Lament’ is an elegy, an expression of grief. It can be a sad, military tune played on a bugle. The poem uses the title as the start of a list of lamented people, events, creatures and other things hurt in the war, so after the word ‘lament’, every verse, and 11 lines, begin with ‘for’.

"The poem is about the Gulf War, which happened in 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the United States, with Britain’s help, bombed Iraq. This war has never really stopped. As we begin a new school year, it still threatens the world.

"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."

Revision Notes

Context:  

The poem was written about the First Gulf War, which began in 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the United States and its allies came to the aid of Kuwait overthrowing the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. 

During the war retreating Iraqi troops opened up oil wells and pipelines as a method of slowing down the US forces that were pursuing them. This action caused the biggest oil spill in history and at least 240 million gallons of crude oil flowed out into the Persian Gulf causing an oil slick that had devastating consequences for marine creatures and sea birds. 

Clarke states that she used the media images connected to the First Gulf War as source material for this poem. The images included a cormorant covered in oil and a soldier on fire after his tank was bombed.  

Structure

The poem is in the form of an elegy – an expression of grief. Usually a poem or song written to honour something or someone after it has died or they have died. The poem has seven stanzas and each stanza is a tercet (3 lines). Every stanza begins with the words, “For the". This anaphoric phrase brings the reader back to the title Lament and reinforces the emotions of regret, sorrow and grief connected with the events of the First Gulf War.  

The first stanza focuses on the pregnant turtle and shows that despite the oil spill nature tries to continue its struggle for survival, however, by the last stanza the earth is burnt suggesting that in the end nature lost the battle with mankind and war.  

Meaning

The poem is about the effects of war and how war cannot be waged without damage to everything. It is a very angry poem and this anger is tangible (real) – you can smell it.  

Use of Language

First stanza 

Pulsing burden – negative connotations – pregnancy should be something to be celebrated. 

Nest of sickness – oxymoron – a nest should be a place where new life is safe and can grow but by line 3 it has become a place of sickness and death.  

Second stanza 

Funeral silk – metaphor for the black oil that now coats the cormorant’s feathers and will bring death to the sea bird.  

Silk and veil – delicate soft fabrics to reflect the fragility of the natural world. 

Funeral and shadow – evoke a presence of death and darkness.  

Veil of iridescence – further metaphorical reference to oil slick as it shows stain left behind as it spreads from land to sea.  

Third stanza 

Mortal stain – the image of the oil slick spills over into stanza 3 and the metaphor of the mortal stain reinforces the fact that this event will bring death and be impossible to wash away.  

Ahmed – uses a local name to evoke an image of a civilian individual. In this case Ahmed is trapped at a closed border and like the turtles and cormorants he too is unable to escape the devastating effects of conflict. 

Uniform on fire – switch of focus to people actively engaged in the war and shows that they too deserve the reader’s thoughts and pity. This metaphor tells the reader he is wreathed in flames and suffering great pain and implies that the soldier is also a victim of the conflict.  

Fourth stanza 

Gunsmith and armourer –  also pity for people who profit from war and this is juxtaposed with the innocent farmer’s sons, in it for the music. This suggests that many of the soldiers have found themselves in this situation out of naivety or even innocent desires for company. 

Fifth stanza 

Dugong – use of obscure animal shows that no animal can escape ravages of war.  

The whale struck dumb – chilling image to think that these intelligent creatures are no longer able to communicate with each other and foreshadows the ashes of language, the final three words in the poem.  

Sixth stanza 

The veiled sun – in this stanza it is covered but by the opening line of the next stanza it has been put out completely rather than being hidden showing that the effects of the conflict are moving from severe to irreversible.  

Stink of anger – so real you can smell it – it stinks like the pollution.  

Seventh stanza 

Burnt, scalded, blazing – very powerful adjectives to describe effects of conflict 

Vengeance – reason why wars sometimes start  

Ashes of language – final phrase symbolising the peace talks have failed and argument has prevailed.

Revision Questions for Lament:

1. Why has the poet chosen the word 'Lament' as the title for this poem?  
2. How does the structure of the poem help the poet to communicate her message?
3. Pick three effective uses of imagery and explain why they are interesting, using PEE paragraphs.