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!'
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!
About
Perhaps Kipling’s most famous poem, “If” urges superhuman stoicism in the face of life’s disasters. It has become emblematic of the Victorian idea of the “stiff upper lip.”
Originally written as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson and first published in 1910, it has survived the test of time despite its relative structural simplicity. George Orwell called it “a good bad poem.”
The apparent simplicity is ultimately complex. Kipling proposes that these superhuman feats — impossible courage and stoicism — make one a ‘man’. The ‘If’ is the crux because, for all the earnest preachiness, what the reader may take from this is that no-one can behave in such a god-like manner. Therefore, no-one is a ‘man’ in the sense of this poem. So is Kipling, knowingly or not, suggesting we are all frail? It may be that we should aspire to be this perfect being, but many readers may think, ‘I couldn’t be like that’. Therefore is the result, that the poet may or may not have intended, defeatist rather than inspirational? The questions go on.
One female student shrewdly asked if, in the twenty-first century, this poem applies to women? Kipling was a Victorian and then an Edwardian, but might have meant ‘humankind’ when referring to being a ‘man’. Or he might have excluded the delicate middle-class ladies of his era. In this case the poem is only of its time, and not translatable to the present day.
Kipling’s only son, Lieutenant John Kipling, died in World War I in 1915, only a few years after “If” was published.
Form and Structure: four stanzas in a simple, alternating rhyme scheme (ABABCDCD).
Themes: Overcoming adversity, stoicism, Victorian ideals of manliness.
Context: William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus” (1888) has a similar theme of overcoming adversity.
The poet gives advice to help the young man to find his place in the world and to live with integrity and dignity
It’s didactic. I had to memorize the first two stanzas in 6th grade and it’s still my favorite poem to this day!
the reader when reading thinks that the poem is instructions on how to become a man and it keeps the reader engaged and doesn’t give away the purpose of the poem until the very end.
My tall good looking “good friend” who absorbed my girlfriend when I was sixteen had this poem pinned on his wall. I kicked him hard, in the balls, he collapsed. I always wonder “If” now he is requiring testosterone replacement therapy.
I am satisfied.
A father and a son, a bonding a passing on of the habits or the knowledge to look at the world with the eyes in an independent manner, arousing the sense of judgement in the young mind…..Love the poem.
its an ABABCDCD Rhyme scheme
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,/ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch” could even be a reference to King Midas. It is important to remember your morals and ideas and not throw them to the side because a bystander effect. It also means that while you walk with Kings, you should remember to relate to other people outside of your realm, as well as where you came from.
