Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
My Boy Jack
1914–18
“H
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
None this tide,
Nor any tide.
Except he did not shame his kind—
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!