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| A Canadian War Factory (1943) Wyndham Lewis source Wikiart |
I can't forget to stop and honour all the men and women who have fought and lost their lives in wars past and present, so that we are able to have the freedom that we enjoy in Canada, and other countries in the world. Heroes they remain, as they were willing to fight when their country needed them.
Drummer Hodge
Thomas Hardy
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.
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.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow up some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars
eternally.
Great post. I remember learning about this and two or three other poems he wrote about the Boer Wars in school. The drummer boys were too young to fight in war, but not too young to die. I love the anger here told with this musical rhyme. Makes me want to see if I still have my notes on this from school. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Frank! I'm planning to read some Hardy in 2016 (I've been intentionally avoiding him up until now), so I thought I'd include one of his poems here. Thanks for the extra information. I just read about the Boer Wars in Gandhi's biography but otherwise, I know next to nothing about them.
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