All 7 Uses of
lament
in
Gulliver's Travels
- I lamented my own folly and wilfulness, in attempting a second voyage, against the advice of all my friends and relations.†
Chpt 2 *lamented = expressed grief or regret
- And I may say with truth, that in the midst of my own misfortunes I could not forbear lamenting my poor nurse, the grief she would suffer for my loss, the displeasure of the queen, and the ruin of her fortune.†
Chpt 2lamenting = expressing grief or regret
- The wives and daughters lament their confinement to the island, although I think it the most delicious spot of ground in the world; and although they live here in the greatest plenty and magnificence, and are allowed to do whatever they please, they long to see the world, and take the diversions of the metropolis, which they are not allowed to do without a particular license from the king; and this is not easy to be obtained, because the people of quality have found, by frequent experience, how hard it is to persuade their women to return from below.†
Chpt 3lament = express grief or regret
- He lamented "the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silkworms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects who infinitely excelled the former, because they understood how to weave, as well as spin."†
Chpt 3lamented = expressed grief or regret
- By reflecting on the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and repine that others have gone to a harbour of rest to which they themselves never can hope to arrive.†
Chpt 3lament = express grief or regret
- That he had once, by way of experiment, privately removed a heap of these stones from the place where one of his Yahoos had buried it; whereupon the sordid animal, missing his treasure, by his loud lamenting brought the whole herd to the place, there miserably howled, then fell to biting and tearing the rest, began to pine away, would neither eat, nor sleep, nor work, till he ordered a servant privately to convey the stones into the same hole, and hide them as before; which, when his Yahoo had found, he presently recovered his spirits and good humour, but took good care to remove them to a better hiding place, and has ever since been a very serviceable brute.†
Chpt 4lamenting = expressing grief or regret
- to lament the brutality to Houyhnhnms in my own country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the sake of my noble master, his family, his friends, and the whole Houyhnhnm race, whom these of ours have the honour to resemble in all their lineaments, however their intellectuals came to degenerate.†
Chpt 4lament = express grief or regret
Definitions:
-
(1)
(lament) to express grief or regret
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Although lament typically refers to a feeling or simple vocal expression, it can refer to a vocal expression as complex as a sad song or poem. It can even refer to sad, but non-vocal music -- as when Tennessee Williams references background music in A Streetcar Named Desire.