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This is one of the favorite poems not only of Almira Lim but of the British people. It's so popular that even these two great tennis players read it aloud with an uploaded video on YouTube. Find out why...
If—
By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
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!
The Poem and the Poet Exposed:
Did you notice in the video that lines from
"If" appear over the player's entrance to Wimbledon's Centre Court? No wonder a lot of people like this poem... it's inspirational, motivational, it contains maxims applicable to everyday life, it's also
"a blueprint for personal integrity, behavior and self development."
While reading the poem, you would probably think that the poet, Rudyard Kipling, had everything going great about his life... he's the author of the Jungle Book (which Disney made into an animated film... no wonder the name
"Rudyard Kipling" rings a bell =), Nobel Prize Award winner for Literature, Poet Laureate and even offered the knighthood. The tone of this poem is pleasant and optimistic, seemingly made by a truly happy person. But that's the beauty of this poem... Kipling actually had tragic and unhappy experiences... He was sent away by his parents, starved of love and affection; beaten and abused by his foster mother; a failure at a public school; and later in life, two of his children died. To be able to write an inspirational poem amidst the pain, the grief, the wounds one has gone through is indeed admirable =)
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/ifpoemrudyardkipling.htm
