Robert J. C. Stead

From "Kitchener and Other Poems"—By permission of The Musson Book Company, Limited, Toronto


DEVON MEN

From Bideford to Appledore the meadows lie aglow

With kingcup and buttercup that flout the summer snow;

And crooked-back and silver-head shall mow the grass to-day,

And lasses turn and toss it till it ripen into hay;

For gone are all the careless youth did reap the land of yore,