A lament is a song or poem composed to bewail deceased friends (funeral dirge) or cities fallen to enemy invaders. In biblical terms, a lament is an appeal to God for intervention in a desperate situation. It can also be an expression of grief over a catastrophe that is irreversible.1
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.