My Boy Jack? Comments

The mother asks questions about her son Jack, who is serving in a war (probably the First World War) , but she gets no definite answer, just 'Not this tide'. She asks if anyone else has heard news of Jack-'Not this tide'. Kipling's son, Jack must have been a brave man, who 'did not shame his kind'. His parents can be proud of Jack. The question-and-answer structure of the poem reminds me somewhat of 'Uphill', by Christina Rossetti.

Kipling wrote this after his son, Jack, went missing on a war. He was the one who pursued his son to join the war despite Jack's vision difficulties. Jack never came back.