
If
'If ' Summary
If
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.
Book Details
Authors

Rudyard Kipling
Britain
Kipling's writing has strongly influenced that of others. His stories for adults remain in print and have garnered high praise from writers as different as Poul Anderson, Jorge Luis Borges, and Randal...
Books by Rudyard KiplingDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books

Cottage Poems by Patrick Brontë
“Cottage Poems” by Patrick Brontë presents a collection of lyrical letters written by the author to his community, colleagues, and members of his cong...

Above Lavender Bay by Henry Lawson
Libby Stone has lived in Lavender Bay all her life. She loves the little seaside town and has big dreams to turn her father's greasy old chippy into a...

Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Arrow and the Song is a short, lyrical poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, renowned for its message of perseverance and the power of artistic expr...

Beautiful Soup by Lewis Carroll
LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 different recordings of Beautiful Soup by Lewis Carroll. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 1st...

Binsey Poplars by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Binsey Poplars is a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, an English poet and Jesuit priest. The poem is a meditation on the beauty of nature, and on the rel...

Outlook Odes by T. W. H. Crosland
T.W.H. Crosland's 'Outlook Odes' is a collection of poems that captures the social and historical climate of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Wr...

Temperance Gems by William Topaz McGonagall
Good people all, of every degree,I pray, ye all be warned by me:I advise ye all to pause and think,And never more to taste strong drink. Some people d...

Kraken by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 different recordings of The Kraken by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of Octob...

Athenaeum Souvenir by Various
The *Athenaeum Souvenir* is a collection of poems published in the mid-19th century to raise funds for the Manchester Athenaeum, a society dedicated t...

Budget of Christmas Tales by Various
This collection of Christmas stories and poems, published in 1895, offers a glimpse into Victorian-era holiday traditions and storytelling. The anthol...
Reviews for If
No reviews posted or approved, yet...