They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest <br />Uncoffined -- just as found: <br />His landmark is a kopje-crest <br />That breaks the veldt around: <br />And foreign constellations west <br />Each night above his mound. <br /> <br />Young Hodge the drummer never knew -- <br />Fresh from his Wessex home -- <br />The meaning of the broad Karoo, <br />The Bush, the dusty loam, <br />And why uprose to nightly view <br />Strange stars amid the gloam. <br /> <br />Yet portion of that unknown plain <br />Will Hodge for ever be; <br />His homely Northern breast and brain <br />Grow to some Southern tree, <br />And strange-eyed constellations reign <br />His stars eternally.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/drummer-hodge/
