By Thomas Hardy
 Drums symbolise the SIGNAL INSTRUMENT for COMMUNICATION and CONDUCTING the WAR.
 In the battle, Captain or Colonel’s
voice would not be heard, so the
beat of the drum played a vital
role in communicating orders to
the troops.
 It was considered dishonourable
knowingly to strike or wound a
drummer in battle.
 Drummers were usually the
YOUNGESTS of soldiers.
 Each beat used to have a specific
meaning instantly recognisable to
the soldiers
 The patriotic responsibility
 The pointlessness of the war
 The incompetence of those in power.
 Heroism was not important.
BOY
SOLDIERS
 Hodge is synonym of ‘agriculture labourer’ with poor wages.
 They are also called as ‘WORKFOLK’
 The Hodge label was the result of'social ignorance and class isolation
 Hodge was an agricultural labourer of rural England in nineteenth century,
'unimaginative, ill-clothed, ill-educated, ill-paid, noncommunicative .
 Hodge symbolises the backwardness and lack of sophistication'
 They hardly dared to think at all, they have few thoughts of joy and little
hope of rest
 Drummer boy = represents a naïve young boy becoming a man in
dangerous circumstances.
 This young soldier travels from England to SA to fight in the Boer War.
 Young Hodge died in SA in the Boer War.
Hardy frequently wrote
about supernatural forces
that control the universe.
 Three six-line stanzas.
 Strict iambic rhythm.
 Regular rhyme scheme: ababab
This suggests restraint and creates a sombre, reflective poem that creates sympathy
for the dead drummer boy.
Regular beat/rhythm may be suggestive of dirge (funeral song).
Enjambment emphasises words like: “uncoffined”; “strange”; “will”; “grow” and “His”.
Despair
Hopeless
Bitter
Witty
Mournful
L1:
 ‘they’ – identity not made clear (could be enemy or friend).
 ‘throw in’ - not lowered with dignity. None of the proper funeral
traditions are carried out.
 ‘to rest’ – RIP
 Allusion: Hodge (Line 1-7) : Historical people who were ‘agriculture
labourers’ with poor wages in South England in nineteenth century.
L2:
 Uncoffined: not even in coffin.
Nothing to mark the site of his burial.
 Just as found: no time to coffin him, like an object not human.
His body hasn’t been properly laid out.
 Lack of mourning
 Alliteration of d (Line 1-2): drummer, uncoffined, found, around,
mound.
L3:
 Kopje- crest : a small hill implying he has just been buried
the only landmark to show grave.
 Veldt: plain surface
The soldier’s grave sticks out in the ‘veldt’ surrounding the burial place.
 Alliteration of T: to, rest, just, kopje-crest, that, veldt
L5-6 -
 The ‘constellations’ (stars) are ‘foreign’ (strange) to him, as in the Northern Hemisphere the
constellations are different to the Southern.
 A romantic picture to create the effect of lessening harshness of death.
 ‘mound’ = his little hill/ landmark
 Contradiction: that the boy seems to be unworthy (dumped in grave), yet he will forever be a
vital part of the surroundings and will outlast the war.
L:7-9:
 Broad Karoo: A dry region in South Africa
 The Bush: British Colonial word for an uncleared area of land.
 Fresh: This young (not in SA long) man never quite understood the conditions in SA
 Wessex home: The climate and the surroundings were difficult/different for him.
 During his life he could never learn about beauties of nature.
 Alliteration of O: Hodge, from, home, of, broad, Karoo, loam,
• loam: soil
• Strange stars = alliteration.
• Gloam = twilight
• Loam & gloam: Assonance
 He is immortalised as a part of an unknown plain, African plain.
 Even though he did not understand or identify with the South African landscape, his
body will now always be part of it.
L15: His homely Nothern breast and brain
 His body and mind will continue to represent him after his death.
 Brain: He was simple but a valuable human nonetheless.
 His Northern (hemisphere) body will decompose into the ground and into the soil.
L16:
 He wıll be forever remembered ın the form of ‘some southern tree’
 This different landscape becomes his permanent home and he becomes a part
of nature.
 Nature welcomes Hodge in death.
 Nature treats him better than humans did
 In death he achieves a worthiness he never received in life.
 In this way, the Northern and Southern hemisphere are reconciled despite the
war.
And strange-eyed constellations reign.
His stars eternally.
 A romantic picture to create the effect of lessening the tragedy of his death.
 His stars eternally: Immortalising him - ‘Drummer Hodge’ will continue to exist as a
symbol of those who fought in the Boer war.
 Forever (‘eternally’) the strange and different constellations will now ‘reign’
(control) the new stars above his ‘hill’ (grave).
 strange-eyed constellations - Personification