An Old Standard That Never Fails To Inspire
September 10, 2008 by Clyde Dennis
Filed under Building Websites
“If” is a poem that was written in 1895 by British Writer and Poet Rudyard Kipling and first published in the Brother Square Toes chapter of Rewards and Fairies, which was a collection of short stories and poems by Kipling.
I can’t remember when I first read this poem but it always amazes me how every time I’ve read it since, no matter how much time has passed between readings it’s like the first time I’ve ever encountered it. Much like a favorite old song it just never seems to get old. In fact it seems the older I get the better “If” gets.
Here’s a video snag with recited extracts from the poem. The full text is listed below:
Be Inspired!
Full text of the complete poem with extracts from the above video enclosed in quotation marks “”:
“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 wornout 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 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!”
– by Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
TheWealthyPromoter (61)
Comments
One Response to “An Old Standard That Never Fails To Inspire”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...SEO Elite Review…
great post and nice site
Glad I found it….