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Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 / Bombay)
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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 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 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!
Read poems about / on: loss, trust, son, truth, dream, lost, hate, running, friend
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awesome piece of work.. still motivates one with the same amount of hope and daring..
I read it during mah school life..felt nice to read it again..
I always chose to answer the question of this poem in my exams..love this poem
When I was young I had to memorize this poem for school. I completely forgot about it until just now when I found it here.
Wow. Back then it was just pretty sounding words... but now that I'm an adult I'm regretting that I ever forgot this poem because these are ideas that I could really use in my life right about now.
Kipling was a genius.
I do so love this poem!
There is truth in inconsistency.
if you get a homeless and give him a house and a garden, he will leave in the garden, if you get someone from desert and give him electronics he will put it on table, if get a bird that converted suddenly to something else he will not answer cause he hear different song ... it said if someone push you one mail go two with him... is hurt? is revenge? is it matter of who lose and who gain? is worth the life of all whom loved you or passed by? is it money? is it pleasure? please define it cause i left it all but took your happiness for ever.. taste real life of your creation huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuman..
In fact, Kipling finishes the ballad of east and west by qualifying his opening statement,
But there is neither East nor West, Border nor Breed, nor Birth
When two strong mend stand fact to face, though they come from the ends of earth.
You know, it's pretty swell how Kipling contradicts himself. Although it is nice to find consistency in ideas, I personally can muster even greater respect for thinkers who openly contradict themselves.
Why? Because humanity is inconsistent by nature. We contradict ourselves all the time; not because we don't really believe anything, but because our beliefs are always in the process of being refined. Our perspectives are always changing, therefore our opinions are always being shaped and reshaped.
Emerson believed similarly: Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. He also says that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. And after all, with consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Another man who thought in a contradictory fashion was Gandhi. He stated, The opinions I have formed today and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow.
Perhaps Kipling was pretty alright after all. He was a great thinker, and he was very human.
Lofty ideas indeed. But the same poet elsewhere has written that East is East and West is West - And never the twain shall meet...! ! That smacks of inconsistency in your philosophy of life. He should have written thus: - // If you can see East in the West and West in the East / Your's is the Earth and Everyone that's on it! ! ...//
I do not respect authors whose ideal enshrined in one piece of writing contradicts with that in another piece of writing. I love the poetry of Paramahansa Yogananda, where you do not find any contradiction at all...
Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan (Land of Upanishads)
So much more than just saying be a man, a lesson in life and humbleness