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 some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
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 some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
Contributed by Dq82 - 2017/8/13 - 20:35
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Literature
Scritta appena dopo l'inizio della seconda guerra anglo-boera. Narra di un soldato seppellito senza troppe cerimonie, in un ambiente ostile e lontano da casa
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
by Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "Drummer Hodge" [satb chorus and piano], from The Battle Cry, no. 4.
by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "The Drummer", published <<1969. [medium voice, piano]
by Alfred Matthew Hale (1875 - 1960), "Drummer Hodge", op. 39 no. ? [female voice and orchestra], fromFive War Poems [
by John Pierre Herman Joubert (b. 1927), "Drummer Hodge", op. 109 no. 3 (1985), from South of the Line, no. 3. [