Rudyard Kipling: If, My boy Jack

Thesis: Rudyard Kipling uses poetry to explore two different aspects of love, underlining the
ideas of nurture and sorrow.

Script
Rudyard Kipling:
- Yes, Joseph Rudyard Kipling is my name. I was named after the Rudyard Lake in
Staffordshire, which was where my parents first met.
- Talking about my personal life, I was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay, India.
This was where I spent my childhood with my little sister, Alice. For me, living in
India was a blast experience. I enjoyed exploring the local markets with my nanny
and I guess this was where I gained proficiency in other languages.
- Moving to England when I was 6 years old was not a great idea at all. My mum
demanded to find a formal British education for me, so I was sent to Southsea,
England, in which I had to live with a foster family called the Holloways.
- I must admit that living with Mrs. Holloway was a nightmare. A lot of times I devoted
myself to reading, but Mrs. Holloway often took away my books. So, Id end up
pretending that I was playing in my room by moving the furniture around when I was
actually reading.
- By the time I was 11, I had a nervous breakdown in which I was kind of glad because
I was rescued from the Holloways to relax my mind. I moved to a new school in
Devon and this was basically when I discovered my talent for writing and eventually
become an editor of the school newspaper.
- When I moved back to India, it was a great time for me to find an experience for
writing. During the time before I won a noble prize, I had written many short stories,
books, as well as poems. The famous ones that were known among a lot of people are
Plain tales from the hills, Soldiers Three, The Story of the Gadsbys, In the Black and
White, Under the Deodars, The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales, Wee Wille
Winkie and Other Child Stories, and Barrack-Room Ballads.
- Later on, I married my wife, Caroline Balestier and we settled down in Vermount,
which was when I started to write The Jungle Book and received the 1907 noble prize
in literature due to the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of
ideas, and remarkable talent for my narration within the book.
- After marrying my wife, we had three children together, one son and two daughters.
John Kipling was the only son in our family, so I was hoping a lot from him
especially working in the military.and Id say a lot of poems were written based on
his story. The two that were directly written for him were If poem and My Boy Jack
poem. These two poems exhibit similar literary style, which is realism, but completely
different theme. The theme that can be seen in if poem is mostly a lesson about life,
whereas in my boy jack, the theme is focusing on courage, perseverance, and
sacrifice.
 Narrator:
- I am sure you are now wondering about the stories behind these poems, so lets first
hear both of the poems.
- If:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, dont deal in lies,
Or being hated, dont give way to hating,
And yet dont look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dreamand not make dreams your master;

If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth youve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kingsnor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything thats in it,
Andwhich is moreyoull be a Man, my son!
 - My boy Jack:

HAVE you news of my boy Jack?

Not this tide.
When dyou think that hell 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.
- As you may have realized, these two poems that I have just read have something in
common. This thing that Im talking about is love. Rudyard Kipling uses poetry to
explore two different aspects of love, underlining the ideas of nurture and sorrow.
- The poem If is a model showing varieties of values which must be evoked within
ourselves in order to have a successful life. Or, in other words, becoming a complete
human being.
- The values that are included in this poem are right behavior, modesty, balance,
patience, self-belief, risk taking, persistence, as well as time management.
- Modesty: (The last line in the first stanza: And yet dont look too good, nor talk too
wise),
- Balance: (Giving your maximum effort to your goals but if you dont suceed, then
dont let that one goal end your other goals: If you can dreamand not make dreams
your master; If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim),
- Time management:(Time management example appears in the last stanza of the poem
where the poet stated If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds
worth of distance run The poet indicates how fast the time pass and once when it is
passed, you will never be able to ask it to come back).
- The aspect of love that can clearly be seen in this poem if is love of nurturing.
Nurturing his son to grow and develop into a mature and wise man.
- On the other hand, the poem My boy Jack is displaying the concept of love through
his feelings of sorrow. Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem to commemorate his beloved
son, John (also known as Jack), who went missing in the battle of Loos during World
War I. He felt extremely sad for this situation as he was the person who encouraged
and pushed his son to enter the military.
- This poem was written in the form of conversation (HAVE you news of my boy
Jack?
Not this tide), representing a person trying to ask for news of their sons, while an
answering voice says that there is no news at this time, in which illustrate a scant hope for
someone who is waiting at home ---no hope, no news. By this, the readers could
understand and sense the absence of his son. Though he did not openly state how much
he felt dreadful about the loss of his son, every single word in the poem, itself, did
explain the sadness very well.
- After hearing an analysis of these two poems, I am certainly assured that everyone
agrees with me for the fact that if and my boy jack poem are touching poems that
offer two different aspects of love from a father to a beloved son, emphasizing love in
term of nurture and sorrow.
 References

Bardhan, S. (2015). Central Idea and Themes of the Poem IF by Rudyard Kipling. Retrieved
May 22, 2017 from https://beamingnotes.com/2015/12/04/form-structure-central-idea-
themes-poem-rudyard-kipling/

Biography.com Editors. (2017). Rudyard Kipling Biography.com. Retrieved May 22, 2017 from
http://www.biography.com/people/rudyard-kipling-9365581

Ibasco, K. (2013). My boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling. Retrieved May 22, 2017 from
https://prezi.com/dl6s1d1fmxjg/my-boy-jack-by-rudyard-kipling/

Osbourne, K. McKeever, C. Rudyard Kipling: Poems Summary and Analysis of My Boy Jack.
Retrieved May 22, 2017 from http://www.gradesaver.com/rudyard-kipling-poems/study-
guide/summary-my-boy-jack

Rudyard Kipling bibliography. Retrieved May 22, 2017 from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling_bibliography