A seaside tableau from Andrew Young, the clerict-naturalist, probably written on one of his visits to his native Scotland.

So few words are needed to paint such a vivid scene. The lines are included in Young's Selected Poems (Carcanet, £9.95).

THE ECHOING CLIFF

White gulls that sit and float,

Each on his shadow like a boat,

Sandpipers, oystercatchers

And herons, those grey stilted watchers,

From loch and corran rise,

And as they scream and squawk abuse

Echo from wooded cliff replies

So clearly that the dark pine boughs,

Where goldcrests flit

And owls in drowsy wisdom sit,

Are filled with sea-birds and their cries.