If - A Cowboy Song Poem by Dr Ian Inkster

Ok, so this poem 'If' is often seen as one of the finer of Rudyard Kipling's poems. So why reproduce it at all, or by song?

Although its common enough to even now see Kipling as fairly cute and cuddly, the Jungle Book and all that, in many ways he was a monster of his time. This poem addresses the playing field of Eton, advising the young men to see their superiority, recognise its importance and the global responsibilities attached to it, act with modest decorum, and thereby rule the world. Kipling's verse was used to justify most of the British-based colonial violence of the 19th and 20th centuries - and I believe it should be treated precisely as such.

So why not just forget it? Well we all like a challenge so I suggest that as his descendents we all get our own back through ridicule by irony. By singing 'If' as a Jim Reeves style of cowboy song we put it in its place, perhaps not on the American frontier quite, but rather on the frontier that marks true human progress from western racial and military grandstanding. Without changing a word of 'if' it becomes a very very silly poem indeed!

Hope you like it!

Ian Inkster 2016.