All 5 Uses of
lament
in
Leaves of Grass
- I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me,
All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation,
(What have I to do with lamentation?)†Chpt 3lamentation = passionate expression of grief or sorrow
- I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me,
All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation,
(What have I to do with lamentation?)†Chpt 3
- O the burials of me past and present,
O me while I stride ahead, material, visible, imperious as ever;
O me, what I was for years, now dead, (I lament not, I am content;)
O to disengage myself from those corpses of me, which I turn and
look at where I cast them,
To pass on, (O living!†Chpt 30lament = express grief or regret
- This now is too lamentable a face for a man,
Some abject louse asking leave to be, cringing for it,
Some milk-nosed maggot blessing what lets it wrig to its hole.†Chpt 32 *lamentable = regrettablestandard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
- I sing to the last the equalities modern or old,
I sing the endless finales of things,
I say Nature continues, glory continues,
I praise with electric voice,
For I do not see one imperfection in the universe,
And I do not see one cause or result lamentable at last in the universe.†Chpt 33
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.