The Dead Drummer
I

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.

II

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.

III

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.