They throw in Drummer Hodge, to
Uncoffined — just as found:
His landmark is a
That breaks the veldt around:
And foreign constellations
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
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and
Grow up some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations
His stars eternally.
This poem is often compared with Brooke's "The Soldier"
