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!
The rhythm and emphasis of the poem alternates between the emphasized beginning of the lines in If and end rhyme. Deftly moving back and forth between the two devices and making the voice of the poem distinct. The poem also tends to progress in double lines consisting of a hypothetical and an exhortation to perfect conduct in said situation.
The first line begins with the eponymous If. The poem is a classic Victorian homage to courage and a stiff upper lip. The subject of the first line is the readers head, or their sensibilities figuratively speaking. The second line is a chastisement to others who ARE losing their sensibilities and blaming the reader for their troubles.
The third line begins with If again, the fourth line encourages generosity of spirit and reason for those who doubt the reader. Although the reader is encouraged to maintain trust in themselves when all men doubt him, the next line encourages him not to be mean spirited or spiteful to those who do doubt him.
The fifth line is also an exhortation to keep alert and not become tired by waiting.
The sixth and seventh lines are also about keeping degrading situations from degrading the readers character. They're about maintaining dignity in the face of hatred and lies. The way this is done is by not falling into the faults that others are leveling at you, which in this case are hatred and lies.
The eight and closing line of the stanza is encouragement not to let pride get the better of you. Even if you can manage to not hold contempt for those who doubt you, to lie to those who lie about you, to hate those who hate you, you shouldn't act as though you were wiser or holier than thou.
The ninth line and beginning of the next stanza begins with If again and focuses on the more inward aspects of experiences of tribulation. One should have dreams, but not let dreams rule over them.
The tenth line is an exhortation not to be carried away by the world of ideas and couples nicely in semantic meaning with the ninth. Although one should be able to think, one should not be ruled by their capacity to think.
The eleventh and twelfth line reminds us that these virtues are only tested in adversity. When one triumphs or fails one shouldn't let these circumstances dictate ones behavior.
The thirteenth and fourteenth deals again with enduring the trials of lies and deceit concerning the truth or beliefs of the reader. When the readers words get twisted by another to take advantage of a third party.
The fifteenth and sixteenth lines deal with the aftermath of disaster and how one should be able to pick oneself up and keep building up the things that concern them. Again this is in keeping with Victorian stoic values.
The seventeenth and eighteenth talk about heaping all your winnings as if in a gamble. To some degree stoics had a fatalistic perspective regarding chance and fate. If life deals you a bad hand, it's your duty to respond to it as gracefully as possible.
The nineteenth and twentieth urges the reader not to complain about life, even when one has lost everything else, one shouldn't lose ones composure.
The twenty-first and twenty-second talks about how at times one must also push beyond the boundaries of physical endurance. Even when they are gone. This could be a either a veiled reference to old age or simply an allusion to giving your all.
The twenty-third and fourth lines talk again about utter loss, here the poem is going beyond material loss mentioned in the beginning of the stanza and continues past even the physical and enters the psychological realm. The realm of the mind in contention with the limitations of the body. When the body has nothing left, the mind must urge it on.
The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth lines begin a new stanza. Here the two part schema of the lines go over briefly the different aspects of life tested. Starting with the vicissitudes of social life. The capacity to deal with people of the highest and lowest standing within society.
The twenty-seventh and eighth lines speak of family and private life with friends and acquaintances. Here each man should count, and family and friends as well as enemies should be interacted with in such a manner as no personal harm comes to oneself. This is perhaps the most striking of stoic Victorian attitudes. That one should be inured to emotional hurt in ones personal life is in keeping with the idea that one must have dominion over their own composure and dignity.
Twenty-nine and thirty bring us back to the last part of the third stanza which conveys itself by physical tests of endurance. Although there's a good argument that Kipling wrote these lines to be conveyed in a figurative sense, he still returns in summary to them at the end of the poem.
Thirty-one and thirty-two wrap up the answer to all the Ifs that have preceded throughout the poem. There's been many tests of character and endurance mentioned and exhortations to the proper conduct and response befitting a man in each. Here at the end of the poem the narrator goes on to say that any person capable of meeting these challenges in such a way possesses the entirety of the world. Here it's the figurative sense of ones own world, and the deportment necessary to be a part of and in possession of the larger world. The poem ends on a note that the above question and responses are what it takes to be a man.
The fifth line is also an exhortation to keep alert and not become tired by waiting.
The sixth and seventh lines are also about keeping degrading situations from degrading the readers character. They're about maintaining dignity in the face of hatred and lies. The way this is done is by not falling into the faults that others are leveling at you, which in this case are hatred and lies.
The eight and closing line of the stanza is encouragement not to let pride get the better of you. Even if you can manage to not hold contempt for those who doubt you, to lie to those who lie about you, to hate those who hate you, you shouldn't act as though you were wiser or holier than thou.
The ninth line and beginning of the next stanza begins with If again and focuses on the more inward aspects of experiences of tribulation. One should have dreams, but not let dreams rule over them.
The tenth line is an exhortation not to be carried away by the world of ideas and couples nicely in semantic meaning with the ninth. Although one should be able to think, one should not be ruled by their capacity to think.
The eleventh and twelfth line reminds us that these virtues are only tested in adversity. When one triumphs or fails one shouldn't let these circumstances dictate ones behavior.
The thirteenth and fourteenth deals again with enduring the trials of lies and deceit concerning the truth or beliefs of the reader. When the readers words get twisted by another to take advantage of a third party.
The fifteenth and sixteenth lines deal with the aftermath of disaster and how one should be able to pick oneself up and keep building up the things that concern them. Again this is in keeping with Victorian stoic values.
The seventeenth and eighteenth talk about heaping all your winnings as if in a gamble. To some degree stoics had a fatalistic perspective regarding chance and fate. If life deals you a bad hand, it's your duty to respond to it as gracefully as possible.
The nineteenth and twentieth urges the reader not to complain about life, even when one has lost everything else, one shouldn't lose ones composure.
The twenty-first and twenty-second talks about how at times one must also push beyond the boundaries of physical endurance. Even when they are gone. This could be a either a veiled reference to old age or simply an allusion to giving your all.
The twenty-third and fourth lines talk again about utter loss, here the poem is going beyond material loss mentioned in the beginning of the stanza and continues past even the physical and enters the psychological realm. The realm of the mind in contention with the limitations of the body. When the body has nothing left, the mind must urge it on.
The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth lines begin a new stanza. Here the two part schema of the lines go over briefly the different aspects of life tested. Starting with the vicissitudes of social life. The capacity to deal with people of the highest and lowest standing within society.
The twenty-seventh and eighth lines speak of family and private life with friends and acquaintances. Here each man should count, and family and friends as well as enemies should be interacted with in such a manner as no personal harm comes to oneself. This is perhaps the most striking of stoic Victorian attitudes. That one should be inured to emotional hurt in ones personal life is in keeping with the idea that one must have dominion over their own composure and dignity.
Twenty-nine and thirty bring us back to the last part of the third stanza which conveys itself by physical tests of endurance. Although there's a good argument that Kipling wrote these lines to be conveyed in a figurative sense, he still returns in summary to them at the end of the poem.
Thirty-one and thirty-two wrap up the answer to all the Ifs that have preceded throughout the poem. There's been many tests of character and endurance mentioned and exhortations to the proper conduct and response befitting a man in each. Here at the end of the poem the narrator goes on to say that any person capable of meeting these challenges in such a way possesses the entirety of the world. Here it's the figurative sense of ones own world, and the deportment necessary to be a part of and in possession of the larger world. The poem ends on a note that the above question and responses are what it takes to be a man.
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