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The Dead Drummer

Topics: classic

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.

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