The repeated elaboration in Lamentations of the many aspects of Zion’s suffering incorporates an explicit recognition of the magnitude and severity of the situation. The poet does not attempt to provide a superficial remedy by downplaying the calamity the city was enduring, but places himself sympathetically alongside the community he is addressing. He is not speaking at them; instead he speaks as one who shares their experience and comes at it from the inside (3:1–18).