I am supposed to memorize this poem but I don't really understand what it is all about. Can anyone explain it to me???   Thanks in advance

So, here's the poem:

My Native Land
by Sir Walter Scott

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

Which lines or words are you having most difficulty understanding?

Line 5 and 6. Does this refer to a new land he has gone to?

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!

Yup, strand (beach) is an example of synechdoche, the part for the whole. Besides, he needed it for the rhyme.

Yeah, could be metonymy instead of synechdoche, I can never remember.

I think Terry, or perhaps Bruce might be better equipped than I to answer queries about the theme here. It's basically a patriotic, love of homeland, type of poem.

Les

'foreign strand' is a phrase commonly used in old poetry to mean an overseas country.

It doesn't necessarily mean here that the man referred to was walking along a beach in such a place.

I imagine, however, that in the Age of Exploration, when explorers had to travel to overseas countries by boat, the stay-at-home poets assumed that the beach would be their landing place. Hence the metaphor.