SQA Higher texts Archives - Scottish Poetry Library

Èistibh - by Anna Frater

{ Poem }

Feuch an tigeadh guth
tron t-sàmhchair.

A nighean a’ chùil ruaidh òir - by Somhairle MacGill-Eain
Sorley MacLean

{ Poem }

A nighean a’ chùil ruaidh òir, fada bhuat, a luaidh, mo thòir; a nighean a’ chùil ruaidh òir, gur fada bhuatsa mo bhròn. Mi nochd air linne Ratharsair, ‘s mo làmh air an stiùir, a’ ghaoth gu neo-airstealach a’ crathadh an t-siùil, mo chridhe gu balbh, cràiteach an dèidh do chiùil, an là an-diugh ‘s […]

The Way My Mother Speaks - by Carol Ann Duffy

{ Poem }

I say her phrases to myself
in my head
or under the shallows of my breath,
restful shapes moving.
The day and ever. The day and ever.

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - by Carol Ann Duffy

{ Poem }

You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.

The Circle - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

My boy is painting outer space,
and steadies his brush-tip to trace
the comets, planets, moon and sun
and all the circuitry they run…

Rain - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

I love all films that start with rain:
rain, braiding a windowpane
or darkening a hung-out dress
or streaming down her upturned face…

Nil Nil - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

Just as any truly accurate representation of a particular geography can only exist on a scale of 1:1 (imagine the vast, rustling map of Burgundy, say, settling over it like a freshly-starched sheet!) so it is with all our abandoned histories, those ignoble lines of succession that end in neither triumph nor disaster, but merely […]

The Ferryman’s Arms - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

About to sit down with my half-pint of Guinness
I was magnetized by a remote phosphorescence
and drawn, like a moth, to the darkened back room
where a pool-table hummed to itself in the corner.

11:00: Baldovan - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

Base Camp. Horizontal sleet. Two small boys
have raised the steel flag of the 20 terminus:

me and Ross Mudie are going up the Hilltown
for the first time ever on our own.

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Curriculum Level: SQA Higher texts

Èistibh - by Anna Frater

A nighean a’ chùil ruaidh òir - by Somhairle MacGill-Eain
Sorley MacLean

The Way My Mother Speaks - by Carol Ann Duffy

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - by Carol Ann Duffy

The Circle - by Don Paterson

Rain - by Don Paterson

Nil Nil - by Don Paterson

The Ferryman’s Arms - by Don Paterson

11:00: Baldovan - by Don Paterson

Waking with Russell - by Don Paterson

A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter - by Robert Burns

Revelation - by Liz Lochhead