A friend said to me the other day what if?...... and it reminded me of a poem I fell in love with in high school, by Rudyard Kipling. Theres been times in my life when Ive felt the need for inspiration or to feel humbled and I always come back to this poem. I have added the meaning to words you may not be familiar with. Knowing them will help to truly understand the entirety of the poem knaves: a dishonest or unscrupulous man pitch-and-toss: a gambling game in which the player who manages to throw a coin closest to a mark gets to toss all the coins, winning those that land with the heads up sinew: solid resilient strength virtue: moral excellence; goodness; righteousness; integrity common touch: the ability to get along with or appeal to ordinary people foes: enemy or opponent If by 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!
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:31:37 +0000
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