If by Rudyard Kipling

Day 9 of the #AtoZChallenge is for the letter I and I is for If. One of my favorite poems is If by Rudyard Kipling and I’d like to share it today.

Rudyard Kipling (1865 to 1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist most notably remembered for his tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He was born in Bombay, India. His most famous works are The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”), Just So Stories (1902), Kim (1901) (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including “The Man Who Would Be King” (1888); and his poems, including “Mandalay” (1890), “Gunga Din” (1890), “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) and “If—” (1910). He is regarded as a major “innovator in the art of the short story” and his children’s books are enduring classics of children’s literature. His best works are said to exhibit “a versatile and luminous narrative gift” (Source: Wikipedia)

I’ve had his book “Kim” for as long as I can remember. Today it is rather yellowed with age. I am ever grateful to my Angels for introducing me to wonderfully inspiring reading. I’ve watched The Jungle Book countless times and I enjoy it as much as the first time, every time. Kipling was a genius and his quotes are brilliant. A personal favorite is “God could not be everywhere, so he made Mothers“.

Let’s enjoy If by Rudyard Kipling – a poem that has inspired me for years.

If by Rudyard Kipling

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 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 imposters 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!