If Poem by Rudyard Kipling

If

Rating: 4.5


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!

If
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
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COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Srimayee Ganguly 16 December 2012

Such a boring poem full of ethics. Although I am devoted to poetry, this poem made me slumber in english class for the first time.

98 360 Reply
samson ogbeewi 10 December 2023

Try this: Samson Ogbeewi - Lost in Lust

2 1
Kevin Straw 28 October 2012

Kipling is wrong - these attributes are valuable to a man sent out to rule an outpost of the empire, but they form only part of a man's intellectual and emotional makeup. Indeed, one has to suspect a man who cannot be hurt by his friends. There is nothing here about love, sorrow, affection, art and charity - Kipling's are pagan attributes - nothing to do with the Jesus Kipling would claim to worship.

82 311 Reply
Dm 23 September 2022

Pompous

9 17
Christopher Okiri 01 November 2022

The poet may be wrong. But i don't think the author set out to write a scripture. I think this is about the art of words and the sound they make, and the imagery they conjure. Just the way i see it

19 2
Maria Goodison 30 October 2023

one of my favourite ever

7 0 Reply
Ekaterina Mendor 24 October 2023

It is a hymn to confidence, restraint and aristocracy. Perhaps it doesn't look so relevant now, but it's interesting for me to look into the past and understand the moral guidelines of people who lived in the last century.

8 0 Reply
Jagdeep Garhwal 10 September 2023

Great poem, Must read for Children

5 0 Reply
Mania Kumari 15 June 2023

Outstanding

8 0 Reply
Niamh St John Lynch 07 June 2023

I adore this poem, the depths of it may vary depending on the readers level of happiness, joy, or despair at any given moment.

15 0 Reply
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