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
Oct 23, 2007, 12:36PM PDT | 2 comments
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.
Oct 20, 2007, 10:53AM PDT | 0 comments
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
Oct 20, 2007, 09:29AM PDT | 0 comments
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
Oct 20, 2007, 08:56AM PDT | 1 cheer | 0 comments
is of the bovine ilk
one end is moo
the other milk
— Ogden Nash
Oct 20, 2007, 07:43AM PDT | 2 cheers | 0 comments
Oct 20, 2007, 04:34AM PDT | 0 comments
Oct 20, 2007, 04:34AM PDT | 0 comments