Analysis of Poem Lament by Gillian ClarkeI didn't understand these particular stanzas... Stanza 3 "For the ocean's lap with its mortal stain....

For Gillian Clarke's poem "Lament," the stanzas shown use
imagery and metaphors to describe the realities of what occurred in the Gulf War.
(Poetry is very subjective, speaking to different people in different ways. These are my
perceptions only.)

"For the ocean's lap with its mortal
stain" refers to the blood of those killed that fills the water. (See note
below.)

Gillian Clarke comments on her poem in the
following lines:

readability="16">

‘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’."For the ocean's lap with
its mortal stain" refers to the blood of the dead in the
water.

"For Ahmed at the
closed border" may simply refer to someone who cannot return home because of the
war.

"The soldier in his uniform of fire" brings to mind a
soldier who is on fire, perhaps the result of a the crash of a vehicle, or being hit by
mortar fire.

"The gunsmith...armourer, The boy fusilier"
(soldier who carries a light musket...gun) all refer to those responsible for making the
trappings of war, or using them. The poet laments (mourns) for
them.

"The farmer's sons, in it for the music" may refer to
young men who lived in the country and wanted to be a part of something bigger, drawn
perhaps by radios other soldiers carried, or even for the idea that people might sing of
their exploits as has been done in the past for
soldiers.

"For the burnt earth and the sun put out" could
speak to the bombing of the earth that has scorched its surface, and the rising smoke
from this that blocks out the sun because it is so
thick.

"The scalded ocean and the blazing well" brings to
mind the terrible heat from missile fire that destroys wells, and the ocean's surface
because Kuwait (where this fighting takes place) rests on the shore of the Kuwait
Bay/the Persian Gulf).

The last line refers to vengeance,
and the sorrow the poet feels for death caused by a need for it; she also mourse for the
loss of language, or the loss of voices to speak the language, perhaps the loss of the
opportunity to find words of peace to stop the fighting.