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 The Dead Drummer by Thomas Hardy 
						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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