E8: If - Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling - If

 

Written: ca. 1895 in ‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies

 

Theme and Story:

In his autobiography Something of Myself (1937), Kipling claimed that the phrase "If—" had its beginnings in the unsuccessful Jameson raid of 1895–1896, which was when British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson led an attack against the South African (Boer) Republic during the New Year weekend. Jameson wanted to trigger his fellow British citizens in the Transvaal to rebel against the Boer administration, but they were unwilling to do so. Instead, Jameson's poorly executed military action contributed to the environment that, a few years later, would spark the Second Boer War. Kipling knew Jameson, and recorded in Something of Myself: ‘Among the verses in Rewards was one set called “If” …

They were based on Jameson's persona and provided advice that was ideal and simple to impart. The Jameson raid's influence on "If" might easily be overstated, and it appears that Kipling's (posthumously published) memoir is the first place this connection is brought up.

If—should first and foremost be interpreted as a poem addressed to a younger man, listing the qualities a man should acquire or cultivate in order to be a paragon of manly virtue. The poem's final words, "you'll be a man, my son," suggest that the poem is addressed to Kipling's actual son.
(source: Link)

 

Poem:

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!

Credits: Rudyard Kipling (1895)