If

March 3, 2006 Personal Stuff 2

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!

–Rudyard Kipling

One of my first exercises in calligraphy was this poem. Deeply inspirational, it moves me still. The calligraphy could have improved though… :dry:

2 Comments

  1. “Slicker”, the City writer for Private Eye, was once quoted in the week as saying the following in relation to city trading:

    “If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    Then you really haven’t grasped how bad the situation is…”

    DK

  2. A great poem Mark 😀

    When I was in my final year at Primary School, Mr Cripps made us do a weekly memory test which cosisted of 16 words that had to be remembered in order and spelled correctly and then a piece of poetry or prose. I was the only kid who got every single one correct for the whole year. I can still remember the first piece of poetry/verse/prose I had to memorise.

    It was:-

    A country life is sweet
    In moderate cold or heat
    To walk in the air
    How pleasant and fair
    In every field of wheat.

    I don’t know who wrote it but I’ve always remembered it.

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