My Boy Jack (poem)

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My Boy Jack is a 1915 poem by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling wrote it after his beloved son, John (called Jack) went missing in the Battle of Loos, during World War I. It was years before Kipling and his family had Jack's death confirmed. In 1992, the site believed to hold Jack Kipling's body was found and a gravestone erected^[1]. Five years later, war historians Tonie and Valmai Holt declared that the stone stood over the grave of the wrong man and asked for the case to be reopened.^[2]

1 Text of the poem
2 Dramatization
3 External links
4 Notes

[edit] Text of the poem

“

“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!

”

[edit] Dramatization

My Boy Jack is a 1997 play written by English actor David Haig. It examines how grief affected Rudyard Kipling following the death of his son, John (known unofficially as Jack), at the Battle of Loos in 1915. It includes a recitation of the poem, My Boy Jack^[3]. Ben Silverstone first played Jack Kipling on stage, while Daniel Radcliffe took over the role for the ITV screen adaptation. Haig played Rudyard Kipling in both stage and screen shows.