If Poem by Rudyard Kipling
"...You'll be a man, my son!"
But what about 'being a woman, my daughter'? Well, that's what I always thought as I read this inspirational poem by Rudyard Kipling...
- Seriously, what a world we would all live in - man or woman - if we could all follow Kipling's inspirational and motivational rules for life! Well... we could get started!
So read on to read the inspiring words of Rudyard Kipling. Oh, and there's a YouTube video of someone reciting this poem to Pachelbel's Canon in D.
- The theme of the poem, then: confidence. Hope you enjoy Rudyard Kipling's words...
Inspirational Poems
If poem - what Rudyard Kipling has to say...
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 all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose,
and start again at your beginnings
And never breath 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!
~~~
by
Rudyard Kipling
(An interesting website dedicated to the teachings of this poem can be found here: All Things If.)
If poem as sung to the tune of 'Pachelbel'