The act of lamenting is a passionate expression of regret, sorrow, grief, loss and other melancholic emotions. It is not limited to the written form but may also be expressed verbally. The Book of Psalms and the Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson are two literary examples that use this unique style of writing.
Shooting Stars, a lament poem written by Carol Ann Duffy, has six stanzas which symbolize the six-pointed Star of David. Duffy expresses her message through the narrator of this poem; a woman speaking to other women as shown when Duffy writes, “[s]ister, if seas do part us...”, who laments the lives that were lost during the Holocaust, the entire Jewish plight and the erasure of the Jewish identity.
By implying these themes, Duffy is able to depict the loss of Jewish identity. In the last stanza, Duffy writes, “[t]ell them I sang the ancient psalms at dusk,” which demonstrates the grief she feels for the Jewish identity by implicitly encouraging the audience to not forget the Jews. Furthermore, Duffy evokes profound emotions from the readers which attracts them to the poem and accomplishes this in one line stating “Loosened his belt.” This short sentence depicts the physical and emotional abuse committed by the Nazis towards Jewish women and allows the readers to experience the grief which she lamenting for the Jewish people.
Duffy however, also portrayed the harm done to all Jews by making the deliberate choice of titling the poem ‘Shooting Stars’. The title itself is an analogy in which the stars are the Jews being shot and the attributes of a shooting star can be compared to that of the Holocaust. Essentially, these breathtaking meteors move very fast, and as they heat up, glow brightly as they cross the atmosphere. In the Holocaust, things moved very fast when Hitler began ordering his Nazi soldiers to kill Jews, reflective of the increase in momentum or heat of the situation. Additionally, the shooting stars crossing the atmosphere can be compared to the event of the Holocaust as it crosses all boundaries of time and will never be forgotten.
Given the evidence provided above, Duffy is successful in her use of the style of a lament poem. By also using techniques such as diction as when Duffy writes, “[t]ell them I sang the ancient psalms at dusk...”, she is able to establish a personal undertone that enables the reader to experience the grief for the Jewish lives, their plight, loss of identity and expression. Had Duffy not used the lament technique, the reader would not have been as engaged with her words and the message she was conveying.
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