Saturday, 7 June 2014

Quotation — "If ...."


Recently, I listened to a TED Talk about the meaning, or relevance, of poetry in our lives, and while reading some of the Internet commentary that followed, I noticed that someone had included the poem "If ...." by Rudyard Kipling.

Having a personal passing relationship with Rudyard Kipling (Born during World War II, I lived in one of Kipling's houses in Sussex which he permitted to be used by mothers for the safety of their new-born children from bomb-ravaged London), and the belief that he is the equal of all others that I have quoted and included in my posts, I must include this poem, written to his son, here.


Rudyard Kipling (1865  - 1936)

An English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in Bombay, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old.  Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book.  Henry James once said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known."  In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.



Rudyard Kipling

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!


P.S.  Read to all young sons ... and daughters.


2 comments:

  1. Hi Bernie,

    It’s a great poem, but like most advice from men, it only works for men . . . and only those in a safe, stable civilization, at that. Ask any witch burned at the stake in Middle Ages Europe . . . or Jew burned in a camp . . . or victim of genocide or bleeding Ghandi about “keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs.” They may want to change a few of Kipling’s lines. Victims of rape are another case in point: statistics tell us that every 2 minutes, another American is sexually assaulted.

    Curiously, I watch a lot of movies that recognize and appreciate those who were able to keep their humanity at great risk to themselves during WWII and do great service by saving the lives of large numbers of Jews. The most recent film was “In the Darkness,” documenting Jews who spent 18 months living in the sewers in a Polish city, supplied by their caretaker, a city sewer worker. I am cataloging the traits of those benefactors. The sewer worker is now being honored by an international tribute on film. One of the most enduring traits that most of these men and women have is that of getting so caught up in what they feel is right that they cannot stop what they are doing. They heed a call to destiny. What is more, to succeed, they will lie, cheat, and dissemble with impunity, even to their closest and most intimate friends and families. Not one of them would pass this Kipling test, but I take my hat off to them.

    Nancy

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  2. It seems Nancy was never a Boy Scout. Well, life in Kipling's time was simpler, maybe even two dimensional compared to the current era. Or could we be less idealistic and more introspective now.

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