Devina Symes

Devina Symes is a poet, born in 1952 at Lulworth Cove in the English county of Dorset. She has been writing poetry in the Dorset dialect since the age of 12, inspired by the poetry of William Barnes. In 2001, she wrote a play entitled 'A Life In Rhyme' to celebrate the bicentenary of Barnes's birth.

In 2002, Symes won a dialect poetry competition run by Wessex Society and got to read her winning poem at Longleat House to an audience including Wessex Society patron Lord Bath. This led to her being asked by the Society to write the lyrics to a regional anthem for Wessex, with music by the Gloucestershire-based composer Hayley Savage.