Thomas Hardy’s Drummer Hodge

Thomas Hardy’s “Drummer Hodge’ is a poem that laments on the horrors

of war. It particularly focuses on the personal tragedy of a young

innocent boy from Hardy’s Wessex. This is however effective due to the

fact that it makes the character win over more sympathy from us

readers as we are able to acknowledge to a greater extent, the tragedy

of this individual.

The first verse tells us that the “Drummer Hodge” was thrown into

a grave uncoffined which shows the lack of acknowledgement for his

life and character. This portrays a feeling of sadness. Through this,

a message of the cruel nature of war and death are conveyed to the

readers, as his corpse is treated with no respect. The phrase “just as

found” also makes evident the unimportance of this character, as it is

more suitable for the description of a lost object. Hodge’s landmark,

which is written in a foreign language, serves as a form of irony, as

he finds himself in a place away from home in a foreign land rather

than his English hometown of Wessex, where he would have been expected

to be. The strangeness of this foreign land in made evident by “each

night” that falls above his grave

The second verse also lays emphasis on the contrast between the place

where

Hodge finds himself; in a foreign country and where he would have

preferred to be buried. Unlike the first verse, it is further

developed; giving a detailed explanation about the features of this

foreign land (which I found out to be a region in the Southern part of

Africa). This is done by a skillful construction of sentence by Hardy.

‘From his Wessex home-The meaning of the broad Karoo, The Bush, the

dusty loam…’ The way in which the sentence diverges from explaining

Hodge’s hometown to this foreign land where he is buried conjures an

image in the mind of the readers and also serves as a form of

contrast. Also following from the first verse is the unawareness of

Hodge portrayed by the “strange stars and the gloam”

The final verse touches on an entirely different issue making obvious

the sad fact that Hodge would never return to his home land, as he has

become a part of this “unkwown’ soil. “Yet the portion of that unknown

plain will Hodge for ever be”. The use of explosives in the words

breast and brain suggest a tone of anger in what has become of this