My Boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling - Have You News of My Boy Jack - poem

Poem believed to have been inspired both by the death of Kipling's soldier son John in the Great War and also by reports of another father asking the whereabouts of his sailor son Jack Cornwell, a recipient of the Victoria Cross for outstanding courage under fire, who died at his post during the Battle of Jutland. The personal grief of the father is contrasted with the sombre and yet encouraging voice of fate.
My Boy Jack (1915)
"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!
Rudyard Kipling