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.