My boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling 1916

[The Swagman]

I read with interest the forum article about the wrong officer in Kipling's grave.
It prompted me to put up his poem.

Have You News Of My Boy Jack? was a poem written in 1916 by author Rudyard Kipling.

Kipling was moved to write the poem following the loss of his son John, an 18-year-old Lieutenant in the Irish Guards, during the British attack at Loos in 1915. His son's body was never located during wartime and Kipling spent much of the final two decades of his life in a vain attempt to locate his probable grave.

Although Kipling never located his son's body it was apparently rediscovered in 1992 and his gravestone accorded formal recognition by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, although the controversial find continues to be debated today, most notably in a 1998 book by Tonie and Valmie Holt, My Boy Jack.

Reproduced below are the words to Kipling's poem, which was performed as a song by Louis Kirkby-Lunn in 1917. Click here to listen to the recording (MP3 format 582kb)


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Have You News of my Boy Jack?

"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.

[harry hackedoff]

Young Jack Kipling was an Irish Guardsman you bif.

[The Swagman]

What does this main paragraph say Harry?

Kipling was moved to write the poem following the loss of his son John, an 18-year-old Lieutenant in the Irish Guards, during the British attack at Loos in 1915. His son's body was never located during wartime and Kipling spent much of the final two decades of his life in a vain attempt to locate his probable grave.

http://www.irishguards.org.uk/pages/poems/index.html

You finding it more difficult now to discredit me Harry?

[anglo-saxon]

There you go slobbering all over each other in pubic again (did I just say "pubic" - slip of the old parsnip!). Get a room, FFS!

Anyhoo, turns out there's a TV series coming out soon staring that man-among-men, the spineless wee bed-wetter wot played Harry Potter, as RK's boy. Complete with fake 'tash and all!

I could never imagine losing a son like that. Old RK was a deeply contemplative man, a keen observer of mankind, and not without passion. I look at my eldest boy now, only 14 and almost bigger than me, and think of him lying about his age as so many did back then and heading off to the hell of France or Flanders in a year or so, or perhaps as a young infanteer in A'stan in today's terms. It is inconceiveable to imagine the lost innocence, let alone the lost life. I do not know how a father could bear such a loss.

"...And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

Good old Brother Kipling for putting it so well. His "Complete Works", by Penguin, are among the more treasured of my collection.

[The Swagman]

Apologies for that Anglo. As I said in another post. Anyone that shoots at me deserves my right to shoot back.
I look forward to better times when The Swagman can post without all the flak.

But I say old bean, good philosophical analysis of the situation. How right you are. It is so easy today to view the dreadful happenings of the First World War as some TV movie from the safety of your lounge.
People can't credit the anguish of parents and the appalling lost of life on the Western Front.
Fine young men being commissioned in their thousands as Second Lieutenants with a time limit of ten days before their deaths either in the trenches in maniacal frontal assaults or in the air with 10 hours flying time after converting to a front line fighter.
Times we hope will never come again.

[Wholley]

Have a skeg through this.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsi ... eneration/

[harry hackedoff]

I look forward to better times when The Swagman can post without all the flak.

Don`t you go believing your own publicity, dear. I look forward to better times myself.
I`m fully aware of Kipling’s poem and don`t need you to explain it`s significance.
Don`t flatter yourself this isn`t personal. I dislike all trolls

[The Swagman]

Why don't you just go away Harry? You are being very tiresome really.
You are supposed to be an impartial moderator here, but you are acting like some ignorant school kid with a grudge.
If I was an admin of a forum, I'd be looking at you and wondering if you are up to your job.

[The Swagman]

Whooley, that is a fantastic site. I am delving into it. Thanks for putting it up.

And Anglo, the first book my mother gave me was Mogali the Jungle Boy.

[anglo-saxon]

The series is based on the poem.

See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851430/

Due for release Nov 11.

[Holger Danske]

There you go slobbering all over each other in pubic again (did I just say "pubic" - slip of the old parsnip!). Get a room, FFS!

Anyhoo, turns out there's a TV series coming out soon staring that man-among-men, the spineless wee bed-wetter wot played Harry Potter, as RK's boy. Complete with fake 'tash and all!

I could never imagine losing a son like that. Old RK was a deeply contemplative man, a keen observer of mankind, and not without passion. I look at my eldest boy now, only 14 and almost bigger than me, and think of him lying about his age as so many did back then and heading off to the hell of France or Flanders in a year or so, or perhaps as a young infanteer in A'stan in today's terms. It is inconceiveable to imagine the lost innocence, let alone the lost life. I do not know how a father could bear such a loss.

"...And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

Good old Brother Kipling for putting it so well. His "Complete Works", by Penguin, are among the more treasured of my collection.

I'm pretty sure that you most have some Viking-blood in you...