IF poem by Rudyard Kipling

 

 Abstract: 

The poem is a motivational one in the form of a dramatic monologue.  A father, who is the narrator of the poem, is explaining different personality traits to his son to adapt them in order to be a good and humble man. The father advises his son in a fatherly but friendly way. The tone is rather unemotional but caring. The poem consists of four octaves, all of them provide guidance and advice.

The poem progresses with the advice and guidance of the father. He asks his son to be positive and stay calm even when it is hard to. He advises him to stay confident and believe in himself even though people discourage him. The father wants his son to have a strong faith in himself and his decisions. The father after providing him with a list of advises, tells him that if he can adapt all these traits they will make him a better human being and a successful man in life ahead.

The frequent use of the pronoun “you” makes the poem a direct address to the reader which creates an interest in the reader’s mind to act upon the listed advice. The guidance provided in the poem is in a polite way so the reader takes it as a list of friendly advice directly made to him.

Through different poetic techniques, the poet has made this long list of advice, an interesting piece of literature. Every point is beautifully explained in the form of “if” and “then” conditional clauses in order to make it clear that if the reader adopts a positive trait or avoids a negative thing, what will happen in return. After reading this poem, the reader gets motivated to do good and avoid bad things.

 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 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!