Friday, December 23, 2005

If

My all time favourite poem and certainly, Kipling's most famous poem! A poem to get me out of the dumps! This poem was written by him with his only son in mind who he lost to war. He has carved a masterpiece that will be there for generations to come!

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 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!

7 comments:

  1. Looks like I have seen this...wait did I send this as thought of the day ? ;-)

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  2. man,

    I had this poem in my eighth standard!! One of my alltime favourite poems...and the most inspiring..!! and maybe u sent it as thought for the day...i dont remember!!

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  3. I did not say I wrote it.

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  4. a really inspiring one, especially for people like us who perpetually lack the motivation to do things.

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  5. Aahaa.. That rings a bell. Rudyard Kipling oda poem-a eppovo school-la padichcha nyabagam..

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  6. If...

    Yes a classic.. but then i remember reading in the 'LONDON' magazine of lit abt someone who got to india and heard a student reciting 'If'. The article went on to says something abt the value system of India as against the west. And about how the desirable values are changing the world over while India's sticking on..

    Good or bad? Don't ask me..

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