If
 

If
by Rudyard Kipling

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 wornout 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 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!

And your point being...?

This is what good poetry looks like.

"If" worms had machine guns...birds wouldn't mess with 'em.

How would worms use the guns?
'Tis a good poem though.
Some British company did a good advert based on this. National Trust I think. They preserve parks, old buildings, etc. for the public.

The point you have proved is that you're a philistine.

:)

Mr Mephisto

It is good, very, very good.

worms with machine guns... chinchilla riding geckos....

pb[death to the man people![/b]

oh shit i am a man :eek:

If you want to read real poetry- search for Edgar Allen Poe.

Not bad, but a little... (IMO) pointless. Doesn't really seem to make a point about anything. Good posting it, though!

analog, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's pointless.

I like Kipling a lot, but I prefer his stories to his poetry.

The Just So stories are incredible, as is the actual jungle book because they got Disney involved.

Poetry-wise I'm more of a W H Auden/Dylan Thomas fan.

I find Kipling to be a little easy. I was an English major, so I like my poetry dense, difficult and inaccessible. ;)

Give me Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and Frank O'Hara any day.

Great poem, thanks for posting it. Great things to strive for.

thanks boco...

I had this on my door when growing up in High School.. thanks for reminding me to keep it even.

Better to read this now than when in school - can appreciate it more perhaps. The first two lines are especially applicable in my world right now:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you

Mr Kipling does certainly make exceedingly good cakes!
;)


(you may only understand this if ur from the UK)

Man to woman " do you like Kipling ?"
Woman to man " I don't know I've never kippled you naughty boy "