The cool freshness of the windless morn

John Frederic Herbin was a Canadian poet of Huguenot ancestry; born in 1860 and was a man of many parts,  jeweller, writer, poet,  optometrist, politician and historian…  he died in 1923

Haying
From the soft dyke-road, crooked and wagon-worn,
Comes the great load of rustling scented hay,
Slow-drawn with heavy swing and creaky sway,
Through the cool freshness of the windless morn.
The oxen, yoked and sturdy, horn to horn,
Sharing the rest and toil of night and day,
Bend head and neck to the long hilly way,
By many a season’s labour marked and torn.
On the broad sea of dyke, the gathering heat
Waves upward from the grass, where road on road
Is swept before the tramping of the teams.
And while the oxen rest beside the sweet
New hay, the loft receives the early load,
With hissing stir, among the dusty beams.

John Frederic Herbin