Kipling by John Collier |
Many of us remember Kipling for his The Jungle Book and also Kim. Mentors and mentees can research more about Kipling and his writings.
If—
(‘Brother
Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)
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, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to
hating,
And yet don’t look
too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams
your master;
If you can
think—and 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
you’ve 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
Kings—nor 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
that’s in it,
And—which is
more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Source: A
Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)
As promised, the story behind Kipling's poem...
The
remarkable story behind Rudyard Kipling's 'If' - and the swashbuckling renegade
who inspired it
Ret. 9-2-14
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