What do the stars symbolize in the poem, Drummer Hodge?

The stars symbolize the inevitable cruel fate brought about by the advent of modernity. This symbolism is especially evident with the ending lines of “Drummer Hodge” in which “strange-eyed constellations reign / His stars eternally,” a description that draws upon the ancient association between fortune-telling and astronomical objects in the Heavens – how a person’s fate is, as the saying goes, written in the stars (17-18). Structurally, the image of the stars recurs at the end of each stanza with the mention of “foreign constellations,” “Strange stars,” and “strange-eyed constellations [that] reign / His stars eternally,” suggesting that even at the level of the poem’s format, the reader is forced to encounter the messaging of the stars (5-18). The stars contribute to the fatalism especially evident at the end of the poem, the suggestion that Hodge’s death and loss of human dignity is inevitable against the overwhelming forces of modernity.