If
One poem I like… — — — — -
If you can keep your head when all about you, And losing their’s 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 aims If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those impostors just the same ; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap of fools Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em 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 sine To serve your turn along after they’re gone And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them, :’Hold on’
If you can walk with crowds & 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 !
Trivia: Did you know Kipling was born in and spent the initial part of his life in India?