My favorite poem is "If" by Rudyard Kipling.?

Question

Please can I get some opinions about this poem.

Answer 1

Everyone should read it and take it to heart!!!

IF - 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 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!

Answer 2

I hated the damn thing when i read it in high school. Especially since you had to dissect everything about it. I'd much rather have stayed with Gunga Din. A man's poem.

"You're a better man than I am Gunga Din"

Answer 3

It's a good poem. One of my top 100.

Answer 4

In my opinion its a rendition of the "ideal" way to be in life....pretty tough to abide by especially during times of duress but ideal nevertheless

Answer 5

I'm 61 years old. I had to memorize this in 8th grade. I still remember parts of it.

Thanks for the memories ...