This popular English poem is about how you should handle yourself when dealing with others and when facing adversity. This guidance still holds true today despite being written more than 100 years ago. It does a good job of differentiating between a childish mindset, and that of a mature adult. Throughout the verses it tries to instil in you the ideal qualities you should demonstrate.
It was published in 1910 by Rudyard Kipling (1856-1936), in a collection of his poetry called “Rewards and Fairies”. It was written from his perspective as a parent passing wisdom on to his son. Unfortunately that five years later in 1915, his only son, John Kipling, was lost while serving in World War I.
Rudyard Kipling was born in British India, in the city of Bombay, now known as Mumbai, and educated in England. He produced written works in multiple forms including short stories, novels, poems, and articles as a journalist. One of his famous works is the collection of short stories called “The Jungle Book”, written in 1894.
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!
– Rudyard Kipling, Rewards and Fairies 1910
I think everyone will have a different interpretation of the poem for themselves, my own is below.
The first verse is teaching us to keep calm, stay patient, and stay true to all that is good and kind, despite the negative influence from people that may surround you.
The meaning of the second and third verse is intertwined. It is teaching us to keep level-headed in the ups and downs of life, and to not get distracted with petty squabbles and manageable hurdles when pursuing goals that are important to us. We can’t get caught up in our losses, and we should always have the resilience to get back up when we have inevitably fallen.
The fourth verse tells us to always stay humble, and true to ourselves, no matter where we are in life.