The Portrayal of War in the Poems, The Cry of South Africa and Drummer Hodge

Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English author who considered himself mainly as a poet. A large part of his work was set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex. In 1898 Hardy published a collection of poems written over 30 years, Wessex Poems his first volume of poetry. Emma Lavinia Gifford, Hardy’s wife, whom he married in 1874. He became alienated from his wife, who died in 1912; her death had a traumatic effect on him. He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his sorrow by writing poetry, he dictated his final poem to his first wife on his deathbed.

Drummer Hodge written in 1902 by Thomas Hardy was originally published under the title “The Dead Drummer”. The boy drummer Hodge was from Hardy’s town, Wessex in England. With the outbreak of war in the world it gave Hardy the material needed to inspire himself from a lacklustre frame of mind. With the death of the local boy stirred emotions that were hidden within the poet to write of the adolescent young man. Hardy concentrates on the aftermath, pointing out the broken body ...