POSNER
“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 forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.”
(…)
HECTOR
The important thing is, he has a name. Say Hardy’s writing about the Zulu Wars. Or later, or…The Boer Wars, possibly.And these were the first campaigns when soldiers, common soldiers,were commemorated.The names of the dead were recorded and inscribed on war memorials. Before this, soldiers – private soldiers -were all unknown soldiers.And so far from being revered,there was a firm in the 19th century in Yorkshire, which swept up their bones from the battlefields of Europe in order to grind them into fertiliser. So, thrown into a common grave though he may be, he’s still Hodge, the Drummer. Lost boy though he is,on the far side of the world…
he still has a name.
“Uncoffined” is a typical Hardy usage. It’s a compound adjective,formed by putting “un” in front of the noun. Or verb, of course. Unkissed… unrejoicing…. unconfessed… unembraced. It’s a turn of phrase that brings with it
a sense of not sharing, of being out of it, whether because of diffidence or shyness. Of holding back, not being in the swim. Can- can you see that?
POSNER
Yes. Yes, sir. I’ve – I’ve felt it, a bit.
HECTOR
The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling,a way of looking at things – that you’d thought special,particular to you, and here it is,set down by someone else. A person you’ve never met,maybe even someone long dead.
And – and it’s as if a hand…has come out… and taken yours.
(from The History Boys by Alan Bennett. Poem by Thomas Hardy.)
