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GCSE English Literature · key term
An expression of grief, sorrow or regret.
Used by Edexcel and OCR
Paper 2
Revise: Clear and Gentle StreamThe speaker repeatedly mentions an old song, dream and lament. He cannot become a boy again, yet returning allows him to recognise something of that earlier self. Its central question is therefore not simply whether childhood has been lost, but whether a familiar place can offer comfort despite that loss.
Paper 2
An expression of grief or sorrow, often for someone who has died or something that has been lost.
Keep the tension between “content” and “lament” in view. The speaker finds comfort without simply forgetting loss.
Part (b): Choose a different poem from the Conflict cluster that directly fits the question. If Lament is printed in part (a), choose another poem for part (b).
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Gillian Clarke’s Lament mourns the damage caused by the 1991 Gulf War. Its victims include animals, displaced people and soldiers, but its concern eventually reaches beyond individual lives to the earth, the sun and truth itself. Rather than narrating a battle or celebrating victory, its speaker names what war has harmed.
