<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Canadians</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">With</span> arrows on their quarters and with numbers on their hoofs,</p><p class="line">With the trampling sound of twenty that re-echoes in the roofs,</p><p class="line">Low of crest and dull of coat, wan and wild of eye,</p><p class="line">Through our English village the Canadians go by.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Shying at a passing cart, swerving from a car,</p><p class="line">Tossing up an anxious head to flaunt a snowy star,</p><p class="line">Racking at a Yankee gait, reaching at the rein,</p><p class="line">Twenty raw Canadians are tasting life again!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Hollow-necked and hollow-flanked, lean of rib and hip,</p><p class="line">Strained and sick and weary with the wallow of the ship,</p><p class="line">Glad to smell the turf again, hear the robin's call,</p><p class="line">Tread again the country road they lost at Montreal!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Fate may bring them dule and woe; better steeds than they</p><p class="line">Sleep beside the English guns a hundred leagues away;</p><p class="line">But till war hath need of them, lightly lie their reins,</p><p class="line">Softly fall the feet of them along the English lanes.</p></div><p class="byline">Will H. Ogilvie</p></body></html> · Great War