read, understand and memorise three poems

South Uist

The west is machair (fertile low-lying coastal plain) with a continuous sandy beach whilst the east coast is mountainous with the peaks of Beinn Mhòr 620 m (2,033 ft) and Hecla 606 m (1,988 ft).

Photo Daisies in the Machair by Commonorgarden

Gibbons was commenting on the decline of the late Elizabethan musical tradition rather than, as I had assumed, being a grumpy old man. So I have understood better one of my chosen poems.

The other poems are fairly straightforward and easy to memorise.

On the Western Seaboard of South Uist

Los muertos abren los ojos a las que viven

I found a pigeon’s skull on the machair,
All the bones pure white and dry, and chalky,
But perfect,
Without a crack or a flaw anywhere.

At the back, rising out of the beak,
Were domes like bubbles of thin bone,
Almost transparent, where the brain had been
That fixed the tilt of the wings.

— Hugh MacDiarmid

Photo of Berneray (North Uist) Machair by Richard Webb

The silver swan, who living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat;
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more;
Farewell, all joys; O death, come close mine eyes;
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

— Orlando Gibbons

is of the bovine ilk
one end is moo
the other milk

— Ogden Nash

for one, obviously.

three though?