Help with the poem "Lament" by Gillian Clarke. I don't get the second stanza of the poem "Lament" by Gillian Clarke; "For the cormorant in his...

This poem is a
type of , that is why it is entitled "Lament". It is a lament for war and each stanza
outlines a particular thing or person that the author is lamenting because each thing or person
alluded to or mentioned is a type of casualty of war. In this stanza, the lament is for the
cormorant. A cormorant is a black bird that looks like someone dressed up for a funeral, hence
the"funeral silk." There are many funerals because of wars, and the cormorant is an
image, then, of death that results from war. A cormorant is a species very common to the Persian
Gulf, and many believe this poem is a lament over the Persian Gulf War of the 1990s which, in a
way, we are still engaged in. The veil on the sand continues the funeral image because people
have been known to wear dark veils to funerals -- especially women. And the final line,
"shadow on the sea" - is an image for the shadow of sadness brought on by war. War
casts a dark shadow on the sea, spreads a veil on the sand and the cormorant arrives for this
metaphoric funeral in his silk. Very dark.