If - Rudyard Kipling

If

Rudyard Kipling

About the Author and Text

       Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English poet and novelist who is remembered for his children's books, including the ever popular The Jungle Book and Kim, and for his many stories and poems written about the British in India during the Raj. He was a strong advocate of the British Empire. Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, and was offered a knighthood several times, though he declined the honour.

       The following poem is written from the perspective of a father offering advice to his son. In it, he expounds the virtues of stoicism and behaving in a manner that befits a gentleman. This simple inspirational poem is often quoted and anthologised. In 1995, it was named 'Britain's favourite poem' in a BBC survey.

  

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, 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 imposters 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!