"Drummer Hodge" is an elegy for a young British casualty of the Second Boer War (1899-1902). First published as "The Dead Drummer" in 1899, the year the war broke out, it appeared under its better-known title in Thomas Hardy's Poems of the Past and the Present (1901). The poem depicts Hodge's brisk, unceremonious burial in a country whose terrain and sky were totally foreign to him. With stark irony, it illustrates the senseless cruelty of war, including imperial wars that send confused young people to die in faraway countries.
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I
1They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
2Uncoffined—just as found:
3His landmark is a kopje-crest
4That breaks the veldt around;
5And foreign constellations west
6Each night above his mound.
II
7Young Hodge the Drummer never knew—
8Fresh from his Wessex home—
9The meaning of the broad Karoo,
10The Bush, the dusty loam,
11And why uprose to nightly view
12Strange stars amid the gloam.
III
13Yet portion of that unknown plain
14Will Hodge for ever be;
15His homely Northern breast and brain
16Grow up a Southern tree,
17And strange-eyed constellations reign
18His stars eternally.
I
1They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
2Uncoffined—just as found:
3His landmark is a kopje-crest
4That breaks the veldt around;
5And foreign constellations west
6Each night above his mound.
II
7Young Hodge the Drummer never knew—
8Fresh from his Wessex home—
9The meaning of the broad Karoo,
10The Bush, the dusty loam,
11And why uprose to nightly view
12Strange stars amid the gloam.
III
13Yet portion of that unknown plain
14Will Hodge for ever be;
15His homely Northern breast and brain
16Grow up a Southern tree,
17And strange-eyed constellations reign
18His stars eternally.
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined—just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew—
Fresh from his Wessex home—
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow up a Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
The Poem Aloud — Listen to a recitation of the poem in the film The History Boys (2006).
The Poet's Life and Work — Read a biography of Hardy at the Poetry Foundation.
Hardy's Era — Read the Poetry Foundation's introduction to the Victorian era in which Hardy wrote.
A Hardy Documentary — Watch the BBC documentary "The Heart of Thomas Hardy."
More About the Author — Learn more about Hardy at the website of the Thomas Hardy Society.
The Second Anglo-Boer War — Learn more about the conflict on which Hardy based the poem.