Kipling's "If"

It must have been a pretty inconsequential afternoon in high school when my teacher read out to us Rudyard Kipling's “If”. I was an eight grade student and the poem perhaps hit me out of my afternoon siesta. I don't complain at all because it is a pointer for personal integrity, behavior and self-development(Naah, I can't write these – I pulled these words out of somewhere). But believe me folks, the poem has made a big impression on my life and here I am to write my kind of tribute to it.

As a prelude to writing up this piece I read up some stuff on Kipling. You would be interested to know that he was born in India. But the beauty and poise of “If” is a stark contrast to Kipling's personal life. It was believed that he was sent away by his parents, abused by his foster mother and a failure at school. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1907. So much for history.

The premise of the poem is so wonderful that I think it would be worthwhile to put it here, right in my blog. And what better tribute can I pay than put the poem right in here.

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 breath 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!

I don't know in which situation Kipling might have written this poem. But to me it feels like that of a father talking to his son. Not because of the last line folks, but because of the message it carries.

If you have a poll on what the best lines are, than what would be mine? That's tough. Each couple of lines would outdo the other. But if i am asked to pick my best lines they would be the very last. "If you can fill the unforgiving minute.....you'll be a Man, my son!". Don't ask me why – it has more than a punch to it!!.