My Boy Jack - Rudyard Kipling

Last Sunday I watched on TV, David Haigh's play of the same name. It was truly a memorable event. Here is Kipling's poem.

'My Boy Jack' (1916)

'Have you news of my boy Jack?
'Not this tide.
'When d'you think that he'll come back?
'Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

'Has any one else had word of him?
'Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

'Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?
'None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind -
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

Kipling's son, John, was lost in action during the Battle of Loos, September 1915. His body was never recovered until long after his father's death and the war's end. Kipling and his wife had to endure long years of uncertainty regarding their son's fate.This poem was published to accompany some articles written on the Battle of Jutland, May 1916 - the largest naval engagement between British and German warships during the war. British losses - of men and ships - were heavier than that of the Germans, although the German High Fleet never attempted to come out of port again for the rest of the war.
Rudyard Kipling
pre1914:Tommy (1890)Recessional (1897)
writing directly elated to the First World War:Prose -Mary PostgateThe Gardener
Poetry -The BeginningsEpitaph 'My Boy Jack'Mesopotamia Justice The HyaenasGethsemane En-dor