My Boy Jack (poem): Difference between revisions
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'''''My Boy Jack''''' is a |
'''''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<ref>[http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=96 My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling's Only Son]</ref>. 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.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/nov/04/books.military 'Wrong man' in Kipling son's grave]</ref> |
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==Text of the poem== |
==Text of the poem== |
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Revision as of 00:46, 6 October 2008
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]
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!
Dramatisation
My Boy Jack is the name of a 1997 play written by English actor David Haig. It examines how grief affected Rudyard Kipling and his family following the death of his son, John (known 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 of the same name. Haig played Rudyard Kipling in both stage and screen shows.