Remembrance Day

[erastes]

My Boy Jack. Rudyard Kipling

'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!

120 War Poems

Comments

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

When I saw My Boy Jack on Masterpiece Theatre, I cried.

Ever since, I have not been able to read this poem without hearing it aloud in my mind.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

completely -great performances all round, too.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Radcakes was delicious as a serious actor, wasn't he? Could not even tell he was once the Boy Who Lived.

Him as played Kipling, though, that was a bucket of mmmtasty.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

David Haig - Oh yes, he's been one of my favourites for years! He wrote the play - and the screenplay too.

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

I've been reading Pat Barker's trilogy - just done 'Regeneration' and 'Eye in the Door', Ghost Road' to come. The more I read about WWI the more it becomes incomprehensible...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Completely!

[zamaxfield.livejournal.com]

Except he did not shame his kind -
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Aw. Now I'm gonna cry. Dear heaven, it's so much worse, I haven't read that since I had my own boys.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Just as well you never saw the programme then! It was gut-tearing!

*pet*