Rudyard Kipling’s much-loved verses are a reflection on what
it is that builds real character.
ByRudyard Kipling1865-1936
1910
Back to text
‘If...’
By John Collier (1881), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source
Rudayrd Kipling, by John Collier (1881).
X
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), painted by John Collier in 1881. In Something of Myself, Kipling tells us that ‘If...’ was inspired by his friend Dr L. S. Jameson (1853-1917). A controversial and often embattled figure, Jameson was undoubtedly cool under pressure. On December 29th, 1895, when he was Administrator for Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company, Jameson led the infamous ‘Jameson Raid’ on the Dutch colony of Transvaal. The popular rebellion he hoped to ignite never came, and there was an almighty diplomatic row during which Rhodes resigned, and Jameson was briefly gaoled. Jameson survived the scandal, watched as British victory in the Boer War of 1899-1902 achieved what the Raid had not, and went on to serve as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1904-8. See also The Boer Wars.
Back to text
Rudayrd Kipling, by John Collier (1881).
Enlarge & read more...
By John Collier (1881), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), painted by John Collier in 1881. In Something of Myself, Kipling tells us that ‘If...’ was inspired by his friend Dr L. S. Jameson (1853-1917). A controversial and often embattled figure, Jameson was undoubtedly cool under pressure. On December 29th, 1895, when he was Administrator for Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company, Jameson led the infamous ‘Jameson Raid’ on the Dutch colony of Transvaal. The popular rebellion he hoped to ignite never came, and there was an almighty diplomatic row during which Rhodes resigned, and Jameson was briefly gaoled. Jameson survived the scandal, watched as British victory in the Boer War of 1899-1902 achieved what the Raid had not, and went on to serve as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1904-8. See also The Boer Wars.
First published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), the verses below followed a story about George Washington’s principles of leadership, though Kipling tells us that the initial inspiration for the poem had been his friend Storr Jameson, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1904-8. ‘If...’ quickly became, as it has remained ever since, one of the nation’s favourites.
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!*
* If... (1910) has a curious power to unite across peoples and cultures. Among the Confucian Analects (1861) collected by missionary Scottish James Legge (1815-1897) we find these words of Tsze-hsia:
“If a man withdraws his mind from the love of beauty, and applies it as sincerely to the love of the virtuous; if, in serving his parents, he can exert his utmost strength; if, in serving his prince, he can devote his life; if, in his intercourse with his friends, his words are sincere: although men say that he has not learned, I will certainly say that he has.”
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author
aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that
strike you. How do they help the author communicate his
ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you?
How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939)
by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at
Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn,
Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University,
USA.
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1Hurt.Losing.Virtue.
2Minute.Thing.Tired.
3Allowance.Knave.Yet.
Variations:1.include direct and indirect speech2.include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who3.use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations:
1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms).2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence.3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding dis-.
For each word below, compose sentences to show that it may be used as an adjective. Adjectives provide extra information about a noun, e.g. a black cat, a round table, the early bird etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations:
1.show whether your adjective can also be used as e.g. a noun, verb or adverb.2.show whether your adjective can be used in comparisons (e.g. good/better/best).3.show whether your adjective can be used in attributive position (e.g. a dangerous corner) and also in predicate position (this corner is dangerous).
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane,
from time to time you could
buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a
Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed
to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a
Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and
there is no need to register.
Related Posts
Dane-Geld
ByRudyard Kipling
Three years before the Great War, Rudyard Kipling recalled
how one English king simply paid his bullying neighbours to stay at home.
