If - Poem: Rudyard Kipling

IF—
POEM
BY RUDYARD KIPLING
SUMMARY
This poem attempts to tell us how to be a man dealing with any

life matters in the future confidently. Not only is the ‘If’ targeted at
the man, but also woman. How to deal with lies, being hated,
waiting and so on is written vividly on the first verse and that is
universal. The poem tries to teach about leadership during difficult
times. In fact, the author opened the poem giving an idea about
challenges of life:
The first three lines give an idea how life can sometimes be
difficult and how men can turn their back on each other during
trying times. The author continues by adding life’s reality such as
“being lied about” as well as “being hated”. And although he
offers the bitter reality of life, Kipling also counteracts this by
offering pieces of advice.
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Kipling continues to give several difficulties and challenges of life
in the following seven lines. Along with these challenges, the
author also stressed the idea of people and how they sometimes are
unable to take responsibilities for both their actions and inactions.
Rather, they opt the easy way out and put the blame on other
people except for themselves. As such, Kipling underlines the
importance of taking responsibility for the choices that you made.
Similarly the author advice to look for life answers within yourself
and at the same time not allowing these hardships to bring you
down.
Kipling talks about how important it is to dare to dream and yet

not allowing those dream to control your life. He likewise talks
about embracing these dreams and being sensitive enough not to
trample other people’s dream. At the same time, the author also
talks about being humble and not allowing triumph to get into
one’s head.
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We can conclude that we can learn so many things in this poem,
such as the dreams, the wish, the success, the failure and many
more things in our daily lives. But, we can know that we can be
success because of our hard work. Failure is also the part of the
successful. The poem 'If' is inspirational, motivational, and a set of
rules for 'grown-up' living.
STORY/SUMMARY
This is a lyric poem, so there’s not exactly a story to it —
instead, it’s an exploration of an idea. In this case the
speaker is addressing the reader, giving us some wise
advice. This advice takes the form of how to be, but also
what to avoid in life — and to not copy the bad behaviour of
others.
In Stanza 1 Kipling says to stay strong and clear-headed

even if others are hostile towards us, to trust ourselves
even when others don’t (but also to accept that they might
doubt us), to encourage patience, to not lie even if people
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lie about us, to not hate others even if we are hated
ourselves, and finally to not boast or seem too perfect and
clever about all of our strengths — we shouldn’t ‘look too
good, nor talk too wise’.
Stanza 2 gives advice on our thoughts and actions: we

should think and dream, but not allow these to control us,
and we should not be too influenced by moments of
extreme success (Triumph) or failure (Disaster). We
should also be able to withstand seeing our truths
manipulated by others, and our hard work coming undone
or being broken. When something we’ve put effort into has
broken, we should work to fix it again.
Stanza 3 explores the idea of perseverance — never giving

up. Kipting extends the concepts of success and failure,
saying that we should be able to lose everything we’ve
earned and still have the motivation to build it back up, as
well as never complaining to others about the loss. We
should push our nerves and emotions as far as they’ll go,
and then some more — by making our willpower stronger
than anything else.
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Finally, in Stanza 4 is about achieving greatness, but
staying humble — Kipling says we should keep our
individuality and goodness when talking to crowds, as well
as staying in touch with everyday people even when
achieving high status. We should make ourselves liked by
everyone, although not the point of obsession. If we can fill
even the smallest amount of time with achieving our long
term projects and goals, then ‘the Earth’ is ours — and we
will be fully adult.
SPEAKER/VOICE
The poem has a personal, emotional and
motivational tone which is intended to inspire its
readers — for this reason, it is likely that the speaker is the
poet himself (Kipling). His personality comes across as
passionate and positive, but also very balanced — he
understands the difficulties we must face in life and that
there will be ups and downs, so his message is to not get
carried away with the good, but also remain positive during
the bad — in other words, we should always
be moderate rather than extreme in our reactions.
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LANGUAGE
Personification — Triumph and Disaster are capitalized,
and called ‘two impostors’, this means Kipling is
personifying them and turning them into characters —
negative characters, that are exposed as not real (as the
word ‘impostor’ means ‘a fake person’). Metaphorically,
Kipling is saying that Triumph — when you feel like you’ve
won a great victory — and Disaster — when everything is
ruined or terrible — are not what they seem. These
represent antithetical extremes — they are almost the
opposite, but in Kipling’s mind they are equally damaging
if you fully embrace them. He says instead that we should
remain moderate and gain control over our extreme
emotions, because that is the best way for a mature person
to be fully in control of themselves.
Anaphora — The word ‘If’ is repeated over and over, at

the beginning of many lines, showing that the poet is
building up one continuous idea (of how to be a mature,
fully balanced and successful person), but also at the same
time exploring different aspects of this topic. It has a sense
of building in greatness as the poem progresses, but the
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word ‘If’ also creates a conditional clause — the phrase
that follows ‘if’ it always depends up on specific conditions
to work, so it signifies a possible future reality, but also
creates doubt and uncertainty.
Antithesis — almost every idea presented in the poem has

an opposite (an antithesis). We should ‘wait and not be
tired by waiting’, ‘being lied about, [not] deal in lies’ and
meet with ‘Triumph and Disaster’. These extreme
opposites that are often balanced equally, create a sense of
both excessive positivity and excessive negativity being a
bad thing — Kipling always tries to keep his opinion in the
middle ground between the extremes, instead of embracing
one or the other.
FORM/STRUCTURE
The ending — the final phase ‘you’ll be a Man, my son!’
could be interpreted as an anticlimax — something less
grand than we were expecting. Yet, if we delve deeper we
can see that Kipling is showing that it takes great strength
to be a Man (or a woman) rather than a child — he has
given us all the qualities that he feels are needed for a
person to be fully mature and strong in their character. We
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can say that the poem has a didactic message — it is
intended to teach readers about success, happiness and
fulfilment in life.
Octaves — the poem is split regularly into three octaves

(8 line stanzas), with an ABABCDCD (alternate
rhyme) rhyme scheme — this regular structure with a
slightly varying rhythm represents how the individual
person should stay strong even if the world around them is
fluctuating, or they are faced with different positive and
negative situations.
Enjambment — ‘risk it all in one pitch and toss, / And

lose’ — Kipling uses a gambling metaphor to suggest the
idea that we shouldn’t be so precious about our money or
success that we wouldn’t risk any of it — he goes so far to
say that we should probably risk all of it and lose it,
because then we would gain a lot of self respect when we
build it back again.
Single sentence — the whole poem is one complex

sentence, showing that all of these ideas are interconnected
and they lead to the same conclusion — a positive,
successful life.
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ATTITUDES
Success is not constant — Kipling talks of ‘Triumph’ as
an impostor — something that is fake and temporary, and
he also says that we should ‘risk it all… And lose’, meaning
that it’s good to risk and lose your winnings in life — either
financially or otherwise. This may seem scary or stupid at
first. However, reason for saying this is that if we lose
everything and then still manage to build it back up, we
will have gained a lot of self knowledge and self respect,
and in the long term we will feel much more stable because
even if the worst happens, we can work hard to get
ourselves back into a favorable position. The confidence in
ourselves and our abilities is far more valuable than any
success or money that we may have achieved.
Happiness comes from self-control — all of Kipling’s

statements are about moderation and being in control of
one’s own character at the very best and very worst of
times. We should assert our individuality in a crowd, but
also empathies with the masses instead of only thinking
about ourselves. We should withstand being hated or
people lying about us, but also never boast or be
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overconfident and arrogant. Understanding and avoiding
the extremes and creating a controlled, balanced and
adaptable character seems to be the most important
message that Kipling is trying to impart.
Individuality is important for happiness — several

times throughout the poem, Kipling reminds us not to pay
attention to what others think or say, especially in their
judgements and negative criticisms or misinterpretations
of our actions. This seems obvious, but it’s very easy to feel
self-conscious and worry about offending others, to the
point of it damaging our own characters. Kipling feels that
we should embrace our individuality and not bend too
much to others’ beliefs about how we should act or feel —
in his opinion, this is the way to true, lasting happiness.
We should all aim for virtue, not perfection

— Kipling tries to take a realistic approach in his poem, he
knows that life is full of ups and downs, and that success in
some ways can cause problems in others, or that failure
can have the potential for an even greater beginning. If we
remain true to ourselves and good-natured in character
(virtuous), then he is confident that we can make the best
out of any situation and we will succeed in life. It’s not
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about being perfect — so for Kipling we could say that a
perfectionist’s approach to live does not achieve success
and happiness, instead it’s about developing inner strength
and the ability to adapt to different situations.
CONTEXT
The poem was published in 1910
Some interpret the poem as being written for Kipling’s own

son — as the poem ends in the phrase ‘my son’, which
could be taken literally. Kipling was famously a short story
writer and wrote a lot for children, so that supports this
interpretation.
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Stoicism — Kipling’s poem reveals a stoic attitude to life
— stoicism is a philosophy that promotes balance,
harmony and moderation. Stoics also use logic and
rationality to navigate difficult situations (they keep a level
head and don’t allow their actions to be ruled by their
emotions); they believe that we should find positives in
pain and suffering, in order to learn and adapt from these
experiences.
The poem also expresses a ‘stiff upper lip mentality’

— the idea that you don’t show your emotions or allow
them to defeat you, as when a person cries their lips often
trembles. This is a typical British attitude to life — where
traditionally the British are known for not showing
extremes of emotion in public. This was a particularly
popular attitude during the Victorian Era, in which
Kipling became a famous poet (although the poem is
written 9 years after Victoria’s death, it does feel more
Victorian than Modern in its tone)
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If - Poem: Rudyard Kipling

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IF—

This poem attempts to tell us how to be a man dealing with any

Kipling talks about how important it is to dare to dream and yet

In Stanza 1 Kipling says to stay strong and clear-headed

Stanza 2 gives advice on our thoughts and actions: we

Stanza 3 explores the idea of perseverance — never giving

Anaphora — The word ‘If’ is repeated over and over, at

Antithesis — almost every idea presented in the poem has

Octaves — the poem is split regularly into three octaves

Enjambment — ‘risk it all in one pitch and toss, / And

Single sentence — the whole poem is one complex

Happiness comes from self-control — all of Kipling’s

Individuality is important for happiness — several

We should all aim for virtue, not perfection

Some interpret the poem as being written for Kipling’s own

The poem also expresses a ‘stiff upper lip mentality’

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