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    If Poem

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    celaeno3

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    If Poem

    Uploaded by

    celaeno3
    11 views1 page

    Original Title

    If poem

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    11 views1 page

    If Poem

    Uploaded by

    celaeno3

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    “If”

    - Rudyard kipling

    Rudyard Kipling, one of the most famous poets of the late British Empire, published “If—” in his
    1910 book Rewards and Fairies. The poem’s speaker advises his son to live with restraint,
    moderation, and composure. The son should always keep his wits about him, the speaker says,
    never overreacting; he should learn to be confident without being vain, accept hardships
    without dwelling on them, and behave with dignity. Living this way, the speaker suggests, will
    make the son a true man. This is a poem of advice not just from a father to a son, but from
    Fathers to Sons: a poem about an idealized kind of self-sufficient male virtue. Its worldview
    borrows heavily from Stoicism, an Ancient Greek philosophy that encourages people to live
    uninfluenced by pleasure or pain—a perspective that appealed to English writers like Kipling and
    plays into the stereotypical idea of the British “stiff upper lip.”

    Summary

    If you can stay calm when everyone around you is panicking and holding you responsible for their panic;
    if you can be confident even when no one trusts you, while still taking other people’s concerns into
    consideration; if you can be patient; if you can avoid lying even when people lie about you; if you can not
    hate anyone even when they hate you; if you can be virtuous in these ways, but still not think too highly
    of yourself;

    If you can have big ambitions, without becoming a servant to them; if you can be analytical, but not get
    lost in analysis for its own sake; if you can take a measured approach to successes and failures, seeing
    them both as temporary and not especially meaningful; if you can handle it when unscrupulous people
    distort your sincere words to deceive the ignorant; if you can lose everything you’ve worked for and get
    right back to rebuilding it from the ground up;

    If you can risk everything you’ve earned on a single gamble, lose it all, and begin again from nothing
    without complaining; if you can push yourself to total mental and physical exhaustion and still keep going
    with only your willpower to support and sustain you;

    If you can mingle with the masses without losing your own moral compass, or travel in the highest
    society without becoming haughty; if neither your enemies nor your friends can hurt your feelings; if you
    can treat everyone with respect, but avoid idolizing anyone in particular; if you can fill up every second
    of unrelenting time with worthwhile action, then the world will be your oyster—And, more importantly,
    you will be a true man, my son.

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